Gauteng health reach a Surgical Marathon milestone on Mandela Day

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The department of health in Gauteng announced that it had exceeded the Mandela Day Surgical Marathon target by reaching a milestone of 742 operations performed.

In a statement issued, the department said it had aimed to do 700 procedures across various public hospitals in honour of Nelson Mandela.

The facilities which have performed the highest number of procedures include Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) with 100, Kalafong Hospital with 59, Mamelodi Hospital with 54 and Steve Biko Academic Hospital with 50.

Surgeries were performed in various areas of specialties such as general surgeries, cataracts, plastics, mastectomy, arthroplasty and orthopaedic amongst others.

Last year, the department exceeded its target when it reached over 720 surgeries performed on this particular day.

“The surgical marathon is part of the GDoH’s ongoing efforts to provide accelerated access to essential surgical care and improve the lives of patients.

“CHBAH served as a central hub for live capturing of statistics from all participating facilities, ensuring real-time monitoring and coordination of surgical activities on the Surgical Patient Dashboard tracker throughout the province.

“This is one of the major interventions which saw the introduction of the dashboard in 2023. It allows the project team to monitor and track the number of surgeries performed daily across all public hospitals in the province,” the statement read.

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Gauteng Health and Wellness MEC, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko applauded the various teams that ensure the successful delivery of the Mandela Day surgical marathons.

“The work that we have done this year and the previous year on this surgical marathon project proves that working together we can achieve more in our efforts to improve patient outcomes.

MEC @NkomoNomantu overseeing the ongoing #MandelaDay2024 surgical marathons at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH). At at 15:47, a total of 507 surgical procedures have been conducted with CHBAH leading with 79 surgeries followed by Kalafong Hospital with 55 and… pic.twitter.com/vNUOZieo78

— Gauteng Health (@GautengHealth) July 18, 2024

“We will be continuing with surgical marathons throughout the year as a way of significantly reducing the normal waiting times,” the MEC remarked.