Eerste River Hospital Receives Medical Equipment Donation

In an attempt to address the enormous demand for cataract operations at Eerste River Hospital, the South African and the 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," says Pierre Uys, Minister of Health for the Western Cape.

The sponsorship includes various state-of-the-art equipment such as an Argon Lazer, 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 Lenteguer under the auspices of GF Jooste Hospital and the Western Cape Rehabilitation Centre on the same site. Groote Schuur Hospital recieved the Spinal 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 was 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 extraction in 2005, project to do 1000 this year and maintain at a level of 2094 by 2008.

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Issued by:
The Directorate Communications
Office of the Superintendent of Health, Western Cape
Department of Health
Faiza Steyn
Director: Communication
Tel: 021 483 3235
Herman van der Westhuizen
Media Liaison Officer to the Minister of Health
Tel: 021 483 2627