The Children’s Hospital Trust (CHT) is helping Victoria Hospital to raise funds to upgrade its paediatric outpatient department.
The trust has served as the fund-raising arm of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital since 1994, and, more recently, it raised R122 million to upgrade the children’s hospital’s emergency centre, which was launched at the end of February.
Toni Erasmus, the trust’s spokeswoman, said helping Victoria Hospital was part of their vision to support other paediatric health-care facilities in the province.
“It is important to go above and beyond for this project because this is an investment in the lives of children that need medical care and treatment.”
The trust had been raising money for the hospital since the beginning of the year and had so far brought in just over R9 million of the R10 million needed for the project, which was due to start early next year, she said.
Victoria Hospital CEO Jonathan Vaughan said that for many years their paediatric department had treated their clinic patients in a small room.
The hospital’s paediatric department wanted to go beyond just treating children’s illness to address the difficult environments they grew up in, he said.
“A new, purpose-built out-patients department will allow the paediatric doctors, nurses, therapists and support workers to provide care in a way that respects and upholds the privacy and dignity of patients,” he said.
“The CHT has built a strong reputation for supporting hospitals, and we are excited about strengthening this partnership for benefit of our community.”
Visit www.childrenshospitaltrust.org.za/donate or email cht@chtrust.org.za to make a contribution.
