Clinical team at Zithulele Hospital

24/12/2021

When you're short-staffed and it feels like everyone else is on holiday, it's important to focus on the right things...
We've been connecting each morning this week to start the day with a moment of gratitude and hope. It's been so encouraging to share reminders of the good things, small and big. Examples include finding the family of an unknown man, hearing a family's gratitude for their child's health, seeing a new mom connect with her baby, celebrating a team birthday and today, we had cupcakes!

Merry Christmas from the team at Zithulele Hospital! We hope you all have a blessed one.

17/12/2021

We take care not to abuse your interest in our Hospital with multiple fundraising appeals, but forgive us an exception.

Simiso joined us last year as a Clinical Associate, but left us shortly thereafter when he won a place at UP Med School, where he's just finished his second year. Despite getting distinctions in 6 of his 7 subjects, he faces exclusion from his course as he hasn't been able to find a funder. (NSFAS paid for 1st year and he has a good possibility of a bursary for next year, but has to pay for second year first...)
A BackaBuddy campaign was launched yesterday and is gathering some momentum, but still has a long way to go.
Please won't you consider contributing? No amount is too small!!

We met Simiso in January 2020, when he started work at Zithulele Hospital, a deeply rural hospital on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape province of South Afric

15/11/2021

All in a day's work... Yesterday, in the space of 4 hours, we had an adult patient with a head injury who was vomiting and fitting; a two year old with a penetrating skull injury who fitted for two hours prior to arrival and was unconscious: a preterm neonate who needed ventilatory support due to his under-developed lungs; a woman with severe preeclampsia and life-threatening cardiovascular changes who needed a Caesar (which we couldn't safely do here) and an adult with a prolonged fit and a low level of consciousness.
Managing patients like these at a district hospital can be a real challenge, let alone when they all come at once on a Sunday! We'll spare you the blow by blow challenges. Sadly they didn't all have happy endings. But it seemed like one of those moments to share, a glimpse behind the scenes of rural medicine - seldom as simple or idyllic as it sometimes seems from the outside.

26/10/2021

Farewell, Dr Mans!

It’s taken a few days to really have it sink in that Dr Mans has left Zithulele after almost 11 years of service to the hospital and this community. No other doctor, besides Ben and maybe Taryn Gaunt, has worked more hours for Zithulele Hospital in its history.

Pierre-Andre Mans, (more widely known as PA) arrived in 2011 as a self-proclaimed hot-headed community service doctor ready to be a specialist in something like cardiology,and leaves us as a family man and specialising; but in family medicine (something he says he would have laughed at in 2011!).

PA was known to be able to clear wards and OPD faster than anyone else, was always the first with new information and guidelines which led him to be known as Mr Up-to-Date, his ultrasound skills were second to none in the hospital and his level of patient care was always excellent. PA grew immensely in his time at Zithulele and was a great senior, leader and mentor to many other doctors and clinical team members during his time with us. Despite trying to come off as the “mean” doctor to new community service clinical team members, it became apparent during his farewell on Friday that he is anything but - Dr Mans was always teaching, questioning and ensuring that people were learning and giving their best, always.

Dr Mans arrived with wife Berdine; and they leave with 7 children, 2 goats, 3 dogs, 3 cats, some bunnies, a minibus taxi and all of the memories 11 years can bring, to East London as they begin a new chapter there. Thank you Pierre-Andre and your family for the massive contribution you have made to life in Zithulele - in and outside of the hospital!!

23/10/2021

Siyabangena!

This was Zithulele’s version of the recent national Vooma campaign to encourage people, in particular the youth, to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The team vaccinated 114 people today- a new record for the hospital-based site! The event was made possible by the hard work and organisation of pharmacist Amma, OHS officer Nocawa, Jabulani Rural Health Foundation and the vaccination team. We also thank Proscreen, Minuteman Press and Twizza for their sponsorship of shirts, notepads and cool drinks for the day.

17/10/2021

Maternity can be a hair raising place at times. Yesterday, an unbooked teenager arrived, bleeding and in labour. On assessment, her baby's cord had pr*****ed, and it wasn't pulsatile. We did an ultrasound mainly because of the bleeding and we were astonished to find baby's heart still beating slowly. The short version is that with the quick institution of the correct protocols and the added and much appreciated assistance of anaesthetist and urologist from NMAH (they operate here on a Saturday to improve patient access), we managed to get baby out alive. Truth be told, without the extra hands on deck we'd have had to go a little more slowly in order to be safe, and wouldn't have had the same amount of resource to dedicate to baby resus.
Baby is small, and has some way to go before he's out the woods, but it was a remarkable example of inter-disciplinary teamwork and things going unexpectedly well, against the odds, so we're celebrating that!

13/10/2021

It was announced by the Minister of Health back in 2013. Back then it felt like we'd won the lotto, but could we find the winning ticket? There have been many ups and downs since then, with multiple delays interrupting the planning process. But the rebuild of Zithulele Hospital has at last gone to tender! Today there was an on-site meeting for contractors who are interested in bidding. It's suddenly starting to feel real. There's a long way to go still between now, and the completion of the project in nearly 6 years' time, but we are super excited about the facility we'll have when all is said AND done!

05/10/2021

Last week Friday our OT Department created a grand round in order to showcase the challenges disabled patients have in getting to and from the hospital. Each group was assigned a patient with a particular history and the teams then had to figure out how best to safely transport the patient, a family member/caregiver as well as their equipment. After a competition was held to see who would make it in the fastest time, the therapists then ran through some basics to remember when transferring a disabled patient.

OT Adele came up with the round and had this to say:
“Accessing health care can be difficult for an able bodied person in such a rural area, but it becomes so much harder if you're disabled and reliant on a wheelchair or buggy.

Last week was OT week, and to end it, we tried to give our clinical team a first hand experience of what it's like to catch a taxi with a wheelchair or a buggy, whilst having a lot of fun along the way 😊.”

23/09/2021

It’s Heritage Day in South Africa tomorrow – a chance to celebrate culture and diversity. The Admin section made full use of the occasion to do some team building. These are the women and men behind the scenes, keeping things ticking. Whether it’s interviews and appointments, paying our salaries, capturing data, ordering stock (or myriad other things), without them things would grind to a halt. We are grateful for their commitment, their ceaseless efforts towards improvement and excellence, and their collaboration with the more clinical components to provide quality patient care.

18/09/2021

We're all following the progress of vaccination in our country, and looking forward to the day it allows us to fully reopen our economy and regard Covid in the same way as we regard influenza.

Getting vaccines to rural communities, where roads, geography and finance conspire to obstruct access, can be a real challenge. We're doing our bit as Zithulele, with support from the Jabulani Rural Health Foundation, to take vaccination as close to people as we can.

10/09/2021

In celebration of Oral Health Month, the Dental team have been doing outreach at schools this week. The POPI act does not allow us to share pictures of the children and their big smiles to see the dental squad; but we can share feedback from dentist and chief tooth fairy, Yolokazi:

“Since it’s the Oral Health month we decided to visit schools around Zithulele this week. Our focus was on foundation phase (preschool to grade 3). At schools we did oral hygiene education, screening all the kids, referring the ones with oral problems to the hospital and distributing toothbrushes. We visited 4 primary schools and 2 preschools. It was an amazing week for the dental team....although tiring... I can say that we all had fun 💃🏾”.

01/09/2021

Happy Spring Day!

Despite the cold, wet weather; we finally got to give our new CEO and Nursing Services Manager a warm and hearty Zithulele welcome!

OR Tambo District Manager Mrs Ntshanga came to the hospital today to formally introduce the newly appointed managers who will complete the senior management team with Dr Ben Gaunt as Clinical Manager and Mrs Anda Sokutu as Hospital Administrator.

Both the CEO and NSM hail from the area and have returned to give back to the community after accumulating experience in other settings across the country.

Leading the nursing staff is Mr Lucas “Juicy” Mncameni, a former Zithulelean who let us know from the get go that his office is only for meetings and that we must expect to see him around the hospital, being part of the team.

Leading the hospital, is our CEO Mrs Nolubabalo Fatyela who comes home with a vision of making Zithulele Hospital a site for “Rural Excellence”.

We are incredibly excited to have them join the Zithulele Hospital Team and look forward to what can and will be achieved in the weeks, months and years to come.