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With the Desmond Tutu School of Medicine nearing completion, NWU is hopeful that a teaching hospital will soon support its vision to provide top-tier medical training and care.
North-West University vice-chancellor and principal Prof Bismark Tyobeka. Picture: Gallo Images/Deon Raath
Rural universities that do not have a tertiary hospital attached to them have expressed hope of having such facilities in the future to enhance academic teaching.
Only North West, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape do not have any academic hospitals affiliated with them.
Gauteng has at least six academic hospitals clustered around Pretoria and Johannesburg, the largest number in the country, followed by Cape Town.
The role of academic hospitals in health and education
Academic hospitals are referral hospitals designed to serve various purposes, including education, training for health care professionals, research and specialised and advanced health care by professionals and medical students as part of teaching and training and care of patients referred by regional and district hospitals.
North-West University (NWU) is one of the tertiary institutions hoping to benefit from the recent announcement by Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi that his department planned to add to the country’s existing 10 academic hospitals.
He made the announcement while presenting his department’s budget vote in the National Council of Provinces last week.
Medical school construction already underway
NWU vice-chancellor and principal Prof Bismark Tyobeka welcomed the announcement.
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It couldn’t have come at a better time for his university, which is in the process of building the Desmond Tutu School of Medicine, which is in the advanced stages of construction.
Tyobeka said: “For a medical school to function effectively it needs to be supported by an allied teaching hospital. We can put our students there for practicals.”
He said the province’s poorest of the poor stood to benefit from such an academic hospital as they wouldn’t need to wait in queues for specialised health care at hospitals in Gauteng or Cape Town.
Desmond Tutu School of Medicine set to open in 2028
The Desmond Tutu School of Medicine at NWU will open in January 2028, with the first intake of 80 first-year students.
The school will accommodate 100 students in 2030 and up to 120 students by 2032-33.
“It is heartening to see that the public health care system, on which almost 90% of South Africans rely, is a high government priority,” said Tyobeka.
“Health care is a promise to our citizens that we must keep.”
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