Staff Reporter.
The Gauteng Department of Health has opened a Chemotherapy lab at the Dr. George Mukhari Academic Hospital (DGMAH), in Ga-Rankuwa, Gauteng.
The department says this is a significant step in its commitment to improve resources and health care services in the province.
Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for Health and Wellness in the province, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, says the lab will allow the hospital to mix different types of chemotherapy medications in-house, allowing for a minimum of 25 to 30 patients to be treated per day.
“This in-house laboratory will address the inefficiencies that the hospital encountered in the past including the delay in delivery of medicines which resulted in inconveniences for patients and healthcare providers,” says Nkomo-Ralehoko.
“Oncologists will have immediate access to medication to treat a wide variety of cancers including gynaecological cancers, breast cancer and blood cancers such as Leukaemia.”
In addition, the MEC reopened the hospital’s Burns Unit which was repurposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reopened unit boasts 32 beds for both adult patients and paediatrics, a theatre room, and an Intensive Care Unit with three beds and will help to respond to the growing need for admissions of burns victims.
Compiled by Lehlohonolo Lehana.