Health care at Helderberg Hospital in Somerset West, has been given a boost through an equipment donation.
Helderberg Sunrise Rotary Club donated advanced ultrasound equipment to the hospital on Thursday December 8.
The donation was the fruit of a fund-raising partnership with the Global Fund and German partners.
The equipment; 2Vscans, 2ipads, 1 Mindray CD30, 1 GE Linear ultrasound transducer, 5 CTG’s foetal heart monitors and 1 Mindray Z60 machine, cost just over a million rand.
Anton Lubbe, Helderberg Sunrise Rotary Club president, said the project is testament to the Sunrise and rotary’s support of medicine and it forms part of their health focus area, which is one of rotary’s six focus areas.
“Sunrise and Rotary itself puts itself out there as being in support of medicine. So it’s always great for us to become involved in a health project.
“We are fortunate to put this together and be able to source the funds for this project. It’s been fantastic and I want to thank our board member, Dr Carl-Heinz Duisberg, who’s been our contact with Germany. Without him we would not have been able to bring this project to fruition.”
Dr Duisberg, formally handed over the donor certificate.
According to Dr Katrin Stuve, specialist physician at Helderberg Hospital, the equipment has made point-of-care ultrasound possible in all areas in the hospital.
“It is so helpful, it’s really the latest buzzword, it’s used a lot in emergency medicine, so it really has become a mainstream modality and we are now jumping right in.
“It’s used to diagnose conditions urgently that can be lifesaving, but it also decreases your delay to diagnosis,” she said and thanked the Helderberg Sunrise Rotary Club for facilitating the fund-raising project, which also includes more than R100 000 in aid of training.
“You really need training to be able to use one of these machines, so training has been a huge part of this project,” Dr Stuve explained.
Through the project, 36 Helderberg Hospital doctors have already undergone training, which will be on-going, at the Stellenbosch University campus.
Helderberg Hospital spokesperson Abulele Dyasi said: “Helderberg Hospital thanks Sunrise Rotary, who works with the hospital to support our ultrasound maternal/fetal health project. This project is unique and benefits every department in the hospital and improves the level of care provided.”
