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groote schuur hospitallatest news & developments
In the Heart of Cape Town Museum at Groote Schuur Hospital, wax figurines recreate the first human-to-human heart transplant, performed by Christiaan Bernard. (Jay Caboz)
CAPE TOWN

Anatomy of a hospital: Groote Schuur in a time of budget and staffing cuts

From porters to engineers, hospital staff navigate chronic underfunding and staffing shortages while maintaining world-class care at one of South Africa’s most storied medical…

  • Sean Christie
18 min read
Leaving a legacy: Preparing to close his door at UCT, Ntusi reflects: ‘I had given my all to this department, and to our work, and it’s time for somebody else to come and lead the department in a different direction.’ (Jay Caboz)
ARTICLE

How Groote Schuur primed Ntobeko Ntusi to head up the SA Medical Research Council

After eight years at the helm of the University of Cape Town’s department of medicine, Ntusi says it is ‘time for somebody else to come and lead’

  • Sean Christie
18 min read
Out for the count: A team from Statistics South Africa counts the transient population as the 2022 census kicks off with census night in Marabastad, Pretoria, on 2 February. (Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images)
2022 CENSUS

2022 census discriminates against LGBTQIA+ community

LGBTQIA+ organisations have accused Stats SA of being discriminatory for excluding transgender, non-binary and intersex categories in a question relating to sex

  • Cassandra Roxburgh
7 min read
Hospital admissions in Africa have increased by 67% during the period but the bed occupancy rate for intensive care units remains low at 7.5%, with 14% of the patients receiving supplemental oxygen. (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Data shows there’s a higher risk of landing up in ICU or dying if you’re not vaccinated

The effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines is becoming clear from the difference in the number of people admitted to hospital between those who have received at least one vaccine…

  • Marcia Zali
4 min read
Cape Town’s Madwaleni Hospital. (Dylan Bush/Bhekisisa)
CAPE TOWN

Long walk to recovery: This rural hospital revolutionised rehab

A road accident, a bad fall, a stabbing. A single moment and a traumatic head injury can change everything in your life, leaving you to relearn the basics — walking, talking,…

  • Joan Van Dyk
10 min read
BODY LANGUAGE

We need our foreign doctors

Yet these skilled professionals are discriminated against by their colleagues

  • Palesa Lebitse
4 min read
Not all transgender people feel the need to undergo gender-affirming treatment. But for those who do, the incongruence between their physical and real genders can lead to gender dysphoria — a conflict between their physical gender and the gender with which they identify. (John McCann/M&G)
BODY LANGUAGE

Trans people have regrets too

The uproar over research about those who rue having a surgical transition obscures real issues

  • Palesa Lebitse
4 min read
Waiting game: Groote Schuur’s Dr Kevin Adams is the only surgeon in the country who can craft a penis from vaginal tissue.
GENDER AFFIRMING SURGERY

‘Ambassadors’ for trans surgery rally for better services

The inaccessibility to gender-affirming surgery is discouraging to transgender people seeking these services

  • Carl Collison
5 min read
CAPE TOWN

Memories of a human heart

The museum — small, intimate and in the very spot where it all took place — remembers the man, the remarkable history of heart transplant surgery.

  • Leonie Joubert
4 min read
CAPE TOWN

Heart surgeon pleads for research support from govt

A leading South African heart surgeon pleaded on Monday, the 40th anniversary of the world’s first heart transplant, for more government support for medical research. Professor…

  • Ben Maclennan
2 min read