The residents of Upington and surrounding areas today welcomed the opening of a new and modern regional hospital, by Northern Cape Premier, Sylvia Lucas.

Premier Lucas said during the official opening that she was delighted to be with the Community of Upington, her beloved hometown, to officially open the new Dr. Harry Surtie Hospital.  She emphasised that she was confident that the new state of the art facilities at the hospital will radically improve the quality of service and infrastructure for patients and staff both in the immediate future and in the years to come.

Of significance is that the hospital has been named after Dr. Harry Surtie, a struggle hero, activist and community leader who worked tirelessly for progress in Upington and was never discouraged by his career as a Dentist in the face of racial oppression.

The Hospital was built to provide Regional Health Services to the Western side of the Province and to reduce the number of transfers to the Kimberley Hospital.

The new hospital will certainly boost health care in the province and particularly the Upington region as it has many improvements compared to the old Gordonia hospital. These include an increase in the number of beds from 180 to 320, an increase in the staff compliment from 354, to1 100.

The Premier highlighted the fact that while this new hospital represents a commitment to state-of-the-art medical technology, the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and other staff who will work here are equally important to the patient experience.

Services to be offered by this hospital include:

• TB Unit  (includes XDR, MDR, Susceptible TB and rooms for Paediatric Patients)
• Maternity Care (Women’s Health) – Assessment Rooms, 4x Labour Wards and a Theatre, Ante- and Postnatal Ward, Milk Bank as well as Gynaecology Ward
• OPD Services – Referral and Booked System
• Ophthalmology Ward
• Medicine Ward (General, Oncology and Dialysis Unit)
• Surgical Ward
• Trauma and Casualty (Plus Private Medicine)
• Audiology
• Physio- and Hydrotherapy
• Speech Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Social Work
• Orthotic/Prostatic Facility
• Psychiatry
• Home Affairs and RAF
• The X-ray Department will provide the following services:
• Lodox
• CT-Scan
• Fluoroscopy
• Mammogram
• Panorax
• Sonars
• The Mammogram and Panorax will only become operational within this financial year.

Premier Lucas further stated during her address that she was confident that this facility would grow from strength to strength and help improve our response rate to attend to all our patients.

She believed that this new Unit will be a great credit to our health services and congratulated everyone for helping to make it possible.

Issued by the office of the Premier

Northern Cape Province
Spokesperson
Mafu Davids
0823166000