Two paediatric operating theatre suites valued at R20-million, were unveiled at Frere Hospital yesterday. The suites were handed over by the Carte Blanche Making a Difference Trust.
Trustee and executive producer for the television news programme Carte Blanche George Mazarakis said the initiative had been inspired by a little girl who died at the former Johannesburg General Hospital five years ago.
“This campaign was inspired by Georgina Andropoulos, a seven-and-a-half-year old who passed away during the year Carte Blanche celebrated its 20th anniversary,” he said.
The trust, established in 2008, has donated paediatric theatres to eight government hospitals across the country, including Frere.
Georgina’s mother, Karolina Andropoulos, had alerted Mazarakis to what a great job the hospital, now known as Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, was doing with the little equipment they had available.
Andropoulos, the patron of the trust, single-handedly raised the funds – R14-million in cash and the rest in kind – for the Frere theatres.
“In the beginning, we thought R20-million would suffice in doing everything we wanted to do in the different hospitals. We were terribly mistaken because the need is so great,” Mazarakis said.
The Frere theatres, which took nine months to turn from storage rooms to state-of-the-art surgical units, will see seven to eight patients a day and a total of 1200 children a year.
The trust had initially wanted to assist at Dora Nginza and Frere hospitals, where Carte Blanche had done a number of exposes on prior to starting the trust.
When they subsequently approached the provincial health department about assisting, they were rejected.
“Because we’d done these stories, people looked at us with fear, thought we wanted to catch them out and that’s why they turned us down initially,” Mazarakis said.
Not until Professor Colin Lazarus, who works in paedatriacs at Frere, approached the trust after seeing what they had done in other facilities.
Mazarakis said the trust intentionally targets academic hospitals to ensure their buck goes further in that future doctors can also be trained at the facilities.
He said he hoped it would help retain doctors and draw back those who had left the country for greener pastures.
Introducing health MEC Dr Pumza Dyantyi, provincial health head Dr Thobile Mbengashe said this was an incredible display of public-private partnership.
She said the department had found paediatric-related cases were among the top-five problem areas for litigation and these theatres would help reduce this.
Frere CEO Dr Rolene Wagner, whose daughter was born with a congenital neural tube defect and has depended on paediatric surgeons and Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals for 16 years, said she knew first-hand the difference these theatres would make. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Frere gets R20m paediatric boost
Trustee and executive producer for the television news programme Carte Blanche George Mazarakis said the initiative had been inspired by a little girl who died at the former Johannesburg General Hospital five years ago.
“This campaign was inspired by Georgina Andropoulos, a seven-and-a-half-year old who passed away during the year Carte Blanche celebrated its 20th anniversary,” he said.
The trust, established in 2008, has donated paediatric theatres to eight government hospitals across the country, including Frere.
Georgina’s mother, Karolina Andropoulos, had alerted Mazarakis to what a great job the hospital, now known as Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, was doing with the little equipment they had available.
Andropoulos, the patron of the trust, single-handedly raised the funds – R14-million in cash and the rest in kind – for the Frere theatres.
“In the beginning, we thought R20-million would suffice in doing everything we wanted to do in the different hospitals. We were terribly mistaken because the need is so great,” Mazarakis said.
The Frere theatres, which took nine months to turn from storage rooms to state-of-the-art surgical units, will see seven to eight patients a day and a total of 1200 children a year.
The trust had initially wanted to assist at Dora Nginza and Frere hospitals, where Carte Blanche had done a number of exposes on prior to starting the trust.
When they subsequently approached the provincial health department about assisting, they were rejected.
“Because we’d done these stories, people looked at us with fear, thought we wanted to catch them out and that’s why they turned us down initially,” Mazarakis said.
Not until Professor Colin Lazarus, who works in paedatriacs at Frere, approached the trust after seeing what they had done in other facilities.
Mazarakis said the trust intentionally targets academic hospitals to ensure their buck goes further in that future doctors can also be trained at the facilities.
He said he hoped it would help retain doctors and draw back those who had left the country for greener pastures.
Introducing health MEC Dr Pumza Dyantyi, provincial health head Dr Thobile Mbengashe said this was an incredible display of public-private partnership.
She said the department had found paediatric-related cases were among the top-five problem areas for litigation and these theatres would help reduce this.
Frere CEO Dr Rolene Wagner, whose daughter was born with a congenital neural tube defect and has depended on paediatric surgeons and Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals for 16 years, said she knew first-hand the difference these theatres would make. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
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