New Surgical Wound Clinic opens at Tembisa Hospital
The investment is to take care of the community and give them first-class treatment
Tembisa Hospital hosted a handover ceremony for a brand new Out Patient Department (OPD) Surgical Wound Care Clinic funded by the South African Medical and Education Foundation (Same) in partnership with local businesses.
The ceremony was attended by Tembisa Hospital board members, the president from The Wound Healing Association of Southern Africa (Whasa) George Belanda, as well as representatives from Same Foundation, Tiso Development Trust, Adcock and the community.
Voice of Tembisa FM station manager Sonnyboy Masingi conducted the prestigious handover ceremony that was held at the Tembisa Hospital’s conference centre on March 22.
The Same Foundation, in partnership with local businesses, has completed the lifesaving project at Tembisa Hospital whereby a vacant building has been renovated into a brand new OPD surgical wound care clinic.
Same Foundation’s executive director Dianne Pols said the foundation is there to help equalise both health and education in this country.
“It’s an innovation centre, there’s no one like it in the country. It has the most up to date modern equipment, it is the first of its kind. This vacuum will help people with sores that aren’t healing. It will force the blood through the veins which mean that they won lose that leg. It will actually heal. People are losing their jobs because they can’t walk properly. We’ve given the Tembisa community a Surgical Wounds Unit that is on par with any private hospital in this country. People are going to be getting the most incredible treatment, in a very beautiful area,” explained Pols.
Corporate social responsibility manager of the Tiso AEL Development Trust, Nicole Solomon, said primary health care is a major concern, especially in Gauteng, because of the number of people and lack of resources and facilities available to them.
“The trust considered to fund the project because of its focus on healthcare matters. Tembisa is one of the communities around which our group operates. When the application for funding came through, we did our research and due diligence and found that it was a good match for our fund to invest in and because of the impact that this unit will make an innovative part of it,” added Solomon.
Solomon said the trust has spent R1-million for the vacuumed unit.
“The investment is to take care of the community and give them first-class treatment but to also create opportunities for education. The vision is to provide access to primary healthcare,” added Solomon.
Meanwhile, Adcock Ingram’s group executive of public affairs Dante Mashile said they saw it fit as a company to invest in a facility where people can find comfort to heal and restore their well-being.
“From our side, its one way of demonstrating that we want to be part of the community and be associated with the health and well-being of the community of Tembisa,” added Mashile.
The Tembisa Hospital CEO, Dr Lekopane Mogaladi, said they are very grateful for the handover of the wound clinic by the sponsors collated and co-ordinated by the Same Foundation and other sponsors which, like Smith and Nephew.
“The Surgical Wound Care Clinic is an out patient clinic and it is going to relieve pressure, not only in our bad occupancy but also in the community. The vacuumed machine will help to accelerate the issue of wound healing. We want to reduce the number of amputations. We’ve trained about 26 nurses who graduated from the Heal Programme, an international programme from Europe,” said Mogaladi.
Tembisa Hospital choir graced the event singing their songs.
