7 September 2006
In an attempt to address the enormous demand for cataract operations at
Eerste River Hospital, the South African and the United States of America (USA)
Rotary Clubs will donate medical equipment for the Eye Clinic at the hospital
to the value of R500 000.
"This new equipment is crucial to the delivery of top-class medical
treatment for eye care and will boost the quality of health services
dramatically as it will assist the department in addressing the huge demand for
cataract operations done in the province," said Pierre Uys, Minister of Health
for the Western Cape.
With an increase in patients and the demand of this specific health service
along with the fact that equipment in health facilities is often old, the
department and the Rotary Clubs acknowledge the demand for new and improved
equipment to service the community.
"This equipment will not only improve the health care services to the
communities but also assist in making the working conditions and environment of
our medical staff more friendly and easy accessible," said Minister Uys.
The sponsorship includes various 'state of the art equipment' such as an
argon lazar, a visual acuity projector, an air puff tonometer, slit lamp and
table, rechargeable ophthalmoscope and retinoscope. This equipment will be
handed over today to Minister Pierre Uys by the Rotary Clubs at Eerste River
Hospital.
Fact sheet on Eerste River Hospital
Eerste River Hospital was commissioned in September 2002 and populated by
the staff of Conradie Hospital which had then been decommissioned and split
into the acute services at Eerste River Hospital, orthopaedic and paediatric
beds at Somerset Hospital, the sub-acute beds at Carnation Ward situated at
Lentegeur under the auspices of GF Jooste Hospital and the Western Cape
Rehabilitation Centre on the same site. Groote Schuur Hospital received the
spinal Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The Eerste River is thus named, as it was the first large obstacle, which
the early colonists encountered on their travels inland to seek new pasture and
habitable land. At the time the river, which has its headwaters in the
Jonkershoek Mountains and winds its way through Stellenbosch, regularly flooded
its banks and brought fertile alluvial soil to the plain and laid the
foundation for the rich agricultural land we find here in the Winelands. It
enters False Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at Macassar which is named after the
birth place of Prince Yusuf, a ruler of Indonesia who was banished here by the
Dutch Batavian colonists after the battle of Bantam on Ceylon in 1696 to remove
him from political power. He lived and died on the banks of the Eerste River
and is known to have brought education and religious philosophy to the early
cape colony.
At this hospital we strive similarly to be a beacon of emancipation and
learning like the Prince; nourishment for the future and a life line for the
people like the river, and to use opportunities for growth, wherever they might
arise rather than be weighed down and sabotaged by challenges.
Eerste River Hospital has the main departments of paediatrics, internal
medicine, emergency unit and surgery under which ophthalmology resorts. The
initial eye service saw a trickle of patients under the care of Dr Neethling
who did not operate. Once funding was made available under the guidance of Dr
Cockburn and support of government, the service expanded to the current level,
where we are performed 400 cataract extractions in 2005, projected to do 1 000
this year and maintain a level of 2 094 by 2008.
Enquiries:
Faiza Steyn
Tel: (021) 483 3235
Herman van der Westhuizen
Tel: (021) 483 2627
Issued by: Department of Health, Western Cape Provincial Government
7 September 2006
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government (http://www.capegateway.gov.za)
