Optimal paediatric cardiac services in South Africa – what do we need?

  • E.G.M. Hoosen Paediatric Cardiology, Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
  • A.M. Cilliers Division of Paediatric Cardiology, C.H. Baragwanath Hospital, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
  • C.T. Hugo-Hamman Paediatric cardiologist, Constantiaberg Medi Clinic and lecturer, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town
  • S.C. Brown Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Universitas Academic Hospital University of the Free State, Bloemfontein
  • J.R. Harrisberg Paediatric cardiologist, Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg
  • F.F. Takawira Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Steve Biko Academic Hospital and University of Pretoria
  • K. Govendrageloo Paediatric cardiologist, Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg
  • J. Lawrenson Paediatric Cardiology Services of the Western Cape, Red Cross Children’s Hospital and Tygerberg Hospitals University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University, Cape Town
  • J. Hewitson Cardiothoracic surgeon: Red Cross Children’s Hospital, University of Cape Town
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24170/7-1-1963

Abstract

Most children with congenital heart disease have a good outcome if treated appropriately, however the majority of children with heart disease in South Africa do not receive appropriate care. This is related to serious deficiencies in the mechanisms and training for early detection as well as a major shortage of skilled personnel to care for these children at all levels. Most public sector hospitals are unable to cope with the number of patients requiring surgery, mainly due to inadequate theatre time allocation and intensive care facilities. Key interventions to address these deficiencies include:
1. Strategies to improve both the training and the retention of all professionals involved in the care of congenital heart disease.
2. Programmes to increase awareness of both congenital and acquired heart disease in children among health care personnel.
3. Ensuring appropriate infrastructure and equipment designed for children with congenital heart disease are available.
4. Development of congenital heart surgery as an independent subspecialty with dedicated resources and personnel.
5. Dedicated intensive care facilities for paediatric heart surgery.
In addition, development of appropriate patterns of referral, stimulation of research and positive private-public partnerships are all necessary to ensure that appropriate care is delivered.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Published
2017-04-12
Issue
Vol. 7 No. 1 (2010): Summer
Section
Articles

Copyright (c) 2017 SA Heart Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.

Authors may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers. 

A copy of the authors’ publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:

  • Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
  • Institutional webpage.
  • Authors Institutional Repository. 

The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in SAHJ, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI.  Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAHJ) may be found. 

Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University’s’ Institutional Repository SUNScholar.

Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.

Copyright Holder: SA Heart Journal

The following license applies:

Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Most read articles by the same author(s)