Seamless cross-sector teamwork in Mediclinic’s latest collaboration performing eardrum repairs

Posted on 19 October 2017

Together with the public sector, surgeons at Mediclinic Vergelegen and Strand perform life-changing eardrum repairs on both children and adults.

On Saturday, 10 patients, some as young as seven and eight, woke up before dawn to get to hospitals in Strand and Somerset West. But by the end of the day they’d had life-changing surgery that will allow them to hear their teachers better and take a swim in the sea without having extreme discomfort in their ears. This was the second most recent collaboration between Mediclinic Southern Africa and the Department of Health of the Western Cape that will eventually see over 100 patients, many of whom have spent months on waiting lists, receive free surgeries in private care.

Dr Leon Nel, ENT surgeon and Dr Anthony Allwood, anaesthesiologist, were the first doctors on duty at Mediclinic Vergelegen for the procedures and affirmed their belief in surgery that will improve children’s lives, helping them to hear their teachers and interact with friends normally again. The other specialists that gave their time generously on the day were Dr Gawie De Villiers and Dr Royden Donald, taking the afternoon’s procedures at Mediclinic Vergelegen as well as Dr Estie Meyer and her associate doctor from Groote Schuur hospital who operated from Mediclinic Strand.

Together with Mediclinic’s corporate team, Bhavna Patel CEO of Groote Schuur hospital is the passionate driver of the latest collaboration between the public and private healthcare sectors.

Dr Patel waited patiently just outside the theatre in Mediclinic Vergelgen hospital alongside Mediclinic Southern Africa’s Chief Human Resource Officer Greg van Wyk and Chief Marketing Officer Dr Biren Valodia to check on the patients’ progress, greet the team who performed the first set of procedures and attend to journalists’ questions.

‘In the public health facilities we have a high burden of disease and trauma cases,’ says Dr Patel. ‘This means we often have to shift our elective patients off our theatre lists – which results in longer waiting lists for these types of procedures.

An example is the tympanoplasty procedures, or eardrum repair surgery, performed on Saturday to resolve infection and discomfort in the patients’ ears as well as the associated loss of balance or hearing. By performing these procedures at Mediclinic hospitals, additional capacity was created in the two public hospitals to perform other surgeries.

‘We are very pleased to be part of this Public Private initiative because it helps us address the long surgical waiting list,’ affirms Dr Patel.

Van Wyk from Mediclinic is equally enthusiastic about the successful collaboration. ‘We believe it is important for all stakeholders within the healthcare industry to collaborate in order to relieve the pressures being experienced in the public healthcare sector.

‘It must remain a priority for everyone in the sector to find solutions to the vast healthcare challenges in South Africa and ultimately benefit the patient,’ he concludes.