News

Hospital’s contribution to medicine acknowledged on its 15th anniversary

UCT Private Academic Hospital’s achievements ascribed to collaboration

Monday, February 27 2017

The landmark UCT Private Academic Hospital, one of the Cape Town’s most highly respected medical treatment and training facilities, celebrates its 15th anniversary this month.

Jacques du Plessis, managing director of the Netcare hospital division, congratulated the facility’s management, staff and the medical professionals practising there on attaining this milestone. According to Du Plessis, UCT Private Academic Hospital (UCTPAH) is today not only one the best known centres for medical care in the Western Cape, but also one of South Africa’s most important specialist training facilities.

Du Plessis explains that the 112-bed UCTPAH is a joint venture with the University of Cape Town’s Health Science Faculty, Groote Schuur Hospital with which it shares some facilities, and Netcare. UCTPAH was initially established by the University of Cape Town (UCT) with its business partners, for the purpose of providing a platform for retaining skilled medical staff, enabling training, and providing a service to private patients.

“The collaboration by the different institutions has ensured a strong cross pollination of ideas, which has taken forward our knowledge of medicine in South Africa. It has also enabled the hospital to develop strong relationships with the public and teaching sectors, which benefits both private and public patients alike,” he adds.

“The concept of the hospital itself has been pioneering and the result is a success story. UCTPAH demonstrates how the private, public and educational sectors can cooperate to not only make quality healthcare more accessible to South Africans, but also contribute to advancing critical medical skills in the country.”

UCTPAH general manager, Lieselle Shield, says: “The management, staff and medical professionals who serve the hospital are proud of what we have achieved, and have been most privileged to serve the community over the past 15 years.”

“Many of UCTPAH’s doctors are academics and professors at the UCT Medical School, and are world renowned within their specific fields. They represent some of the finest medical minds in South Africa and have the backing of the collective medical bank of knowledge at Groote Schuur Hospital, UCT Medical School and Netcare. As a consequence, UCTPAH has been repeatedly acknowledged for its groundbreaking medical research over the years.”

The hospital offers patients a comprehensive range of highly specialised services, ranging from heart, liver and kidney transplantation to an integrated digestive diseases centre and a specialised orthopaedic surgery centre known as OrthoUCT. Additional specialised services include pain management, cardiology, haematology, neurology, neurosurgery and oncology. There are, furthermore, breast cancer, diabetes, thyroid, infertility, uterine fibroid treatment and other specialised clinics at the hospital.

UCTPAH’s facilities include intensive and high care units, surgical, medical and day wards, a multi-disciplinary diagnostic facility, dialysis centre, and a new paediatric unit.

“In addition to the hospital’s multi-disciplinary heart, liver and kidney/renal transplantation programmes, UCTPAH has been running a specialised HIV to HIV transplant programme since 2009. It was the only HIV transplantation programme in the world up until 2015.

“A team of surgeons and physicians at UCTPAH has been running an adult liver transplant programme, which was initiated late in 2014. This is a collaborative programme with the University of Cape Town academic staff, as well the Provincial Administration of the Western Cape including Red Cross Children’s Hospital and Groote Schuur Hospital,” adds Shield.

The Digestive Diseases Centre (DDC) at UCTPAH acts as a tertiary referral centre locally, nationally as well as internationally, providing highly specialised services. It offers patients with upper gastrointestinal, lower gastrointestinal, hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) diseases and intestinal failure the full range of available diagnostic and treatment modalities.

The OrthoUCT centre offers a full spectrum of orthopaedic surgery including the following sub-specialties within the orthopaedic field: hip and knee reconstruction surgery; limb lengthening surgery; spine, hand, elbow, shoulder, foot and ankle surgery; as well as paediatric orthopaedics.

“The hospital is home to highly specialised state-of-the-art technology. For example, last year we introduced an endobronchial ultrasound scan [EBUS] bronchoscope which enables improved diagnosis and evaluation of cancers of the lungs and airways as well as other medical conditions and infections,” says Shield.

According to Shield, the hospital’s daisy logo symbolises friendliness, cheerfulness and warmth. “These are the values that the staff of the hospital hold dear. The petals of the daisy represent freshness and innovation in our approach to healthcare.”

“Our aim at UCTPAH is to continue providing our patients with quality, sustainable healthcare solutions into the future. We will also continue our efforts to broaden medical knowledge, thereby making a critical contribution to our shared healthcare future in this country,” she concludes.

 

Ends

Issued by:    Martina Nicholson Associates (MNA) on behalf of UCTPAH
Contact    :    Martina Nicholson, Graeme Swinney, Meggan Saville and Pieter Rossouw
Telephone:    (011) 469 3016
Email:    [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and
[email protected]