UPDATE ON THE NELSON MANDELA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

As we close the first quarter of the fifth anniversary of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital (NMCH), we would like to update our global community of donors, supporters and partners on our hospital’s progress.
 
Now, the only dedicated children’s hospital in Gauteng and the second in the Southern Africa region, Mr Nelson Mandela’s vision of improving access to healthcare for children will reach yet another milestone.
 
After officially admitting its first patients on 21 June 2017, the 220-specialist facility operates as a non-profit, academic hospital which provides services to children regardless of their ability to pay. A majority of its services are focused on serving public patients who have limited access to healthcare services.
 
The hospital is slowly growing its private practice in line with its mixed model of fundraising supported by robust fundraising efforts by its founder, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
NMCH offers the following medical, surgical and supporting services: Cardiology (Interventional and Diagnostic), Renal (including Dialysis), ENT (Ear Nose and Throat), General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Neurology and Orthopaedic Surgery. These services are supported by the Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Units, Radiology and Anaesthesia.
 
To strengthen and grow its academic affiliation and training capacity, the hospital has also signed academic agreements with the following universities in the past year: University of Witwatersrand and the University of Johannesburg.
 
Whilst Covid-19 has had, and continues to have, an adverse impact on activities at the hospital with a staff complement of just over 300, over 11 300 admissions were received at NMCH in the past financial year.
 
NMCH also started the year with a new Chief Executive Officer, Dr Nonkululeko Boikhutso and Chief Financial Officer, Ms Margaret Amofa who were both officially appointed by the NMCH Board of Directors in December 2021.
 
Dr Boikhutso will lead the new strategy for the next five-year period which includes positioning NMCH to offer high quality and distinctive market-responsive pediatric health services in South Africa and the broader African continent.
 
The hospital has also focused on greening efforts with the aim of saving water and electricity at the state-of-the-art facility, an ongoing project which will ensure the environmental sustainability of this facility, for generations to come.
 
The hospital will commemorate its birthday various activations leading up to June and July, widely known as International Mandela Month.
 
In April for instance, the hospital will take a moment to commemorate the sterling work by emergency response teams who responded to the devasting fire at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (approximately 200 metres from NMCH) which resulted in the evacuation of over 100 neonatal babies and their families to NMCH.
 
Our community will continue to receive regular updates during this special period, leading to the birthday celebrations.
 
We would like to thank all our donors, partners, supporters, staff, patients and families who have been with us on this journey and as we look forward to marking this great milestone.
 
For more information contact:
 
Nomthi Mnisi
Chief Communications and Marketing Officer
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund
nomthi@nmcf.co.za
 
OR
 
Ayabulela Poro
Specialist: Communications and Marketing
ayabulelap@nmcf.co.za
Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund
Telephone: 011 274 5600