Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals

The western cape Department of Health has 28 000 employees and was allocated a budget of R9.89-billion in 2009/10. In the course of a year, some 436 000 admissions are made and 13 million patient contacts are made.

The province has three tertiary hospitals (Groote Schuur, Red Cross Children’s Hospital and Tygerberg), eight secondary hospitals, 24 district hospitals, five tuberculosis hospitals, a maternity hospital, 10 obstetric units, four psychiatric hospitals and 57 clinics.

Major new healthcare facilities came on stream in the Western Cape in the course of 2009 and, with several building projects breaking ground, the province is set to be in a better position to provide good-quality healthcare in the near future, especially to communities previously ignored.

One exciting project came to fruition in September 2009, when the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital launched its new operating wing. The R125-million price tag for the 4 600-square-metre operating theatre complex in Rondebosch, Cape Town was met with a lot of work by the remarkable Children’s Hospital Trust.

Cape Town will have two large new hospitals by 2018. The biggest public-private partnership yet undertaken in the Western Cape will see R2‑billion spent on replacing the existing Tygerberg Hospital, an outdated facility. Work began on the much awaited Mitchells Plain District Hospital in October 2009 and will be completed in late 2012, roughly the same time as the Khayelitsha District Hospital will also be completed. The combined cost of the two projects is R940‑million. These facilities will take some pressure off GF Jooste Hospital, which currently caters for more than a million people in its catchment area.

The private healthcare sector in South Africa is dominated by three large players: Network Healthcare Holdings, Medi-Clinic and Life Healthcare. One of the best-known private hospitals is Life Healthcare’s Vincent Pallotti Hospital in Pinelands, Cape Town. A company specific to the Western Cape is Melomed Hospital Holdings, which has facilities in Gatesville, Mitchells Plain and Bellville.

Investment in private hospitals has grown substantially since 1998, with private-sector beds increasing by 32% to an estimated 27 500 beds. Of these, more than 4 200 are in the Western Cape. According to the South African Health Review 2007, the Western Cape has 39 private hospitals, and is second only to Gauteng in almost all departments, including total hospitals and available medical, surgical, maternity, intensive care, paediatric and psychiatric beds.

ONLINE RESOURCES
Children’s Hospital Trust: www.childrenshospitaltrust.org.za
Council for Medical Schemes: www.medicalscheme.com
Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA): www.hpcsa.co.za
National Department of Health: www.doh.gov.za
National Progressive Primary Health Care Network (NPPHCN): www.hst.org.za
South African Association of Hospital and Institutional Pharmacists: www.saahip.org.za
South African Medical Association: www.samedical.org