Livingstone clinic revamp

She was speaking at the launch of the newly revamped clinic, which came about as a result of a R1.6- million partnership between clothing chain store Truworths, the South African Medical and Education Foundation and the Eastern Cape Department of Health.

Both the reception area of Livingstone Hospital and the hospital’s formerly dilapidated outpatient clinics were renovated and upgraded.

Dyantyi yesterday opened the newly renovated outpatient clinics at Livingstone Hospital amid great celebrations from staff and patients alike.

The upgrade includes more than 200 new, comfortable seats in the reception and outpatient waiting area, as well as new admin furniture and equipment.

The project also included the creation of two new medical dressing rooms with a separate waiting area.The outpatients department was originally opened in 1986.

Doctors and nurses see, on average, 72 000 patients a year there, and deliver specialist services to the public including spinal, diabetic and respiratory medical care.

“This is a very exciting day for us,” Eastern Cape Department of Health director of clinical governance Dr Litha Matiwane said.

“We hope that this will be the start of an ongoing partnership, not only for today but for years to come,” he said.

Dyantyi said she viewed the renovations as a lifelong gift to the community.

“I am proud to say today that working together we can indeed do more,” she said.

“Livingstone Hospital is a very old hospital and we are struggling to address all its infrastructure problems with only government funding,” she said.

Dyantyi said to staff members that staff attitudes remained the most critical factor in changing public perceptions of the hospital.

“I know patients also have an attitude sometimes, but let us try to be patient,” she said.

Department of Health superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe said that the department needed partnerships with the private sector.

“We also need to have some urgency in making hospitals better for our communities. I think thirdly it is also important for us to realise that we all have a social responsibility.

“Patients who are now coming to Livingstone Hospital will find a very different hospital,” he said.

Dianne Pols, of the SA Medical and Education Foundation, said the renovations at Livingstone Hospital were the foundation’s first project in the Eastern Cape.

The Livingstone Tertiary Hospital is the fifth social investment project by the foundation and Truworths.

The national campaign started in 2010 to focus specifically on patient comfort and the restructuring of ageing hospitals, allowing them to treat patients quickly and effectively.

The foundation is a donorfunded national NGO which focuses on high-impact social investment projects in health and education.

“It is not going to be the last project we do at Livingstone,” Pols said.

“Livingstone Hospital is a very important hospital in Port Elizabeth.”

Brian Tate, from the Truworths Foundation, said it was a privilege to have been involved in the project.

“I was delighted when Port Elizabeth was selected as the recipient of the foundation’s money,” he said.

He said in the past eight years they had spent R11-million at hospitals around South Africa through the SA Medical and Education Foundation.

“I think another important factor for us is that we have 18 stores in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.

“We have more than 73 000 loyal account customers at these stores,” he said. personnel by gangs was also of major concern to her.

“We are very sympathetic towards the SAPS because we know they also have staff shortages, but we want to ask them to remain committed to helping us.”

In the past 22 months, ambulances in the Bay were attacked 20 times, with most attacks occurring in New Brighton.

The situation has become so bad that ambulances may no longer go into New Brighton without a police escort.