SowetanLive reports that the North West department of health has beefed up Tshepong Hospital in Klerksdorp with 13 high-level specialists to provide patients with quality healthcare.  

The new specialists include a cardiologist, a cardiothoracic surgeon, a gynaecologist, a plastic surgeon, a neurosurgeon, a general surgeon, a maxillofacial surgeon and nephrologists.  The hospital is the province's biggest hospital and can accommodate 900 in-patients.  Chief specialist physician Professor Binu Luke indicated that the hospital provided tertiary services and had to develop many services and specialists that were not there previously.  In 2000 the hospital linked up with Wits University and became a training institution, attracting many specialists.  Luke pointed out that one of the imperatives of having a tertiary hospital was not only to provide services but also to teach other doctors.  The hospital currently has over 250 doctors, including 50 specialists, 84 interns, 35 community service doctors and medical officers.  Departmental spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane said the addition of specialists to the province's hospitals was a significant step towards realisation of quality healthcare because in the past the province had had to refer most of the patients in need of specialist medical care to Gauteng hospitals.

• Read the full original of Boitumelo Tshehle’s report on the above at SowetanLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page