The private hospital sector in South Africa provides a shorter length of stay in hospital and swift recuperation. Most of our hospitals offer not only a holistic, comprehensive and quality healthcare service but also specialist cosmetic surgery. There are also medical tourism companies to facilitate the lives of international patients.
Moreover, South Africa’s excellent medical care and plastic surgery are affordable, thanks to our highly favourable exchange rate. A stay in South Africa may be good value for money for international patients.
Click here to view a list of our hospitals.
South Africa’s Private Hospitals Renowned for Quality Care and Excellence
South Africa’s private hospital industry is a national asset with a global reputation for delivering world-class, quality medical care. Together with the country’s healthcare fraternity, the industry can lay claim to a number of medical innovations.
At present, there are 247 private hospitals with 30 334 beds in South Africa. Approximately 12 751 affiliated medical practitioners and specialists support the private hospitals industry over and above the 54 000 employed professionals in the industry. The spread of private hospitals is fairly excellent ensuring that healthcare is accessible to both nationals and foreigners.
Besides being a national asset, networks of private hospital in South Africa are increasingly looking to foreign markets for expansion. As a result, numerous international ventures have been undertaken with hospitals being purchased, managed and constructed in many countries including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Dubai and other African states.
Hospital Association of South Africa
The industry’s collective social, economic, legislative and related interests are represented by the Hospital Association of South Africa (Hasa) – a not for profit confederation comprising approximately 94 percent of the country’s private hospitals and ambulatory clinics. Hasa is governed by a Board of Directors elected by the industry.
Private Hospitals Prepare for 2010
Hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup presents its own set of healthcare challenges and Hasa and its members believe that the private hospital industry is excellently positioned to assist with most levels of healthcare intervention – should this become necessary. Hasa and other stakeholders are in the process of implementing appropriate healthcare responses to ensure that all soccer visitors, officials, teams and their respective health professionals have access to world-class facilities and quality medical care.
Along with ambulatory services, private hospitals in proximity to stadiums will be on standby for the respective games. The combination of quality care and high standards of technology will ensure that individual health needs are adequately addressed as and when the need arises.
Patients requiring information pertaining to health establishments, Diabetic Clinics, and other healthcare services can request such from Lindie Moss at contact@hasa.co.za
Mental Health
The Psychiatric Focus Forum (PFF)
In response to the increasing demand for private mental healthcare facilities, Hasa formed the Psychiatric Focus Forum (PFF) in 1977. PFF represents most of South Africa’s private psychiatric hospitals, or mental health establishments and rehabilitation units (which treat substance abuse). The forum is committed to addressing mental health issues and improving the image and infrastructure of psychiatry in the country. It is particularly determined to de-stigmatise mental illness and provide quality treatment for all patients requiring relevant health interventions.
In order to ensure that patients receive an appropriate standard of care, Hasa and PFF initiated a project to establish minimum standards in all member facilities. Upholding these standard, PFF attempts to ensure that patients’ needs are adequately addressed – not only in terms of clinical requirements, but also with regard to the right to informed consent, privacy and confidentiality.
List of PFF
Quality, Standards and Commitment to Best Practice
A substantial amount is consistently invested in new technology to maintain global best-practice standard in our private hospitals. These investments enable the private hospital sector to remain abreast of international developments and the latest technological advancements in most specialized disciplines.
The industry-wide commitment to technological excellence also enables the provision of quality care to citizens and places South Africa on an equal footing with the international community. Sound business models and expertise have positioned South Africa’s hospitals among the best in the world in terms of quality of care and the industry was recently ranked fourth on an international scale (Citygroup report 2007).
The National Health Act of 2003 further ensures that the quality of healthcare delivery within private hospitals is of an international standard. The Act places specific emphasis on the rights of healthcare users, and thus informed consent, privacy, confidentiality and other ethical concerns are vigorously protected. In response, private hospitals have implemented individual policies which govern protocol compliance.
Global Competitor
Two of South Africa’s private hospital groups, Network Healthcare Holdings Limited (Netcare) and Life Healthcare (Life), have been awarded numerous Independent Sector Treatment Centre (ISTC) contracts with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). They were selected above various international healthcare service providers.
Further cementing South Africa’s global healthcare acclaim is Netcare’s 2006 acquisition of the UK-based General Healthcare Group Limited (GHG) for £2.2bn and Medi-Clinic Limited’s (Medi-Clinic) 49% acquisition in the largest private hospital group in the UAE, Emirates Healthcare Holdings for $46.4m.
South Africa – a Healthcare Destination
Continuous technological advancements, stringent quality standards and accreditation processes add immeasurable value to the African continent as a whole by attracting multinationals, international tourists, businessmen, politicians, moviemakers, celebrities and other high profile individuals.
An increasing number of foreign patients are selecting the country as their healthcare destination of choice. The larger private hospital groups – Life, Medi-Clinic and Netcare – plus several independent hospitals have formalized relationships with a number of countries for a variety of specialized services including, but not limited to, paediatrics, surgical interventions and mental healthcare. To this end an increasing number of patients from other African countries and further afield are accessing South Africa’s private hospitals.
Examples include:
Recent technological advances
South Africa’s private hospital industry recently notched up the following milestones, to mention but a few:
Life Healthcare:
• Construction of the ultra high-tech Life Fourways Hospital for R200 million. The hospital has a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) catheterization and vascular laboratories and five laminar flow operating rooms.
• Africa’s most advanced digital operating theatre (Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital)
• Cancer unit offering intensity-modulated radiation therapy for head and neck cancers plus stereotactic neuroradiosurgery (Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital)
• South Africa’s first dual-purpose PET Centre (Life Little Company of Mary Hospital)
• South Africa’s first dedicated orthopaedic digital operating rooms (Life Entabeni Hospital)
• Specialised neurological rehabilitation unit (Life Eugene Marais Hospital)
Medi-Clinic:
• A 64 multi-slice CT scanner, MRI scanner and PET scanner (Morningside Medi-Clinic)
• Digital PACS system which enables access to patients’ pathology and radiology results from within and outside the hospital (Morningside Medi-Clinic and Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic)
• An electronic chute system between the wards and the dispensing pharmacy (Welkom Medi-Clinic) This system is managed and monitored remotely/off-site
• Medi-Clinic is a member of the Vermont-Oxford Network (VON) database which monitors the clinical outcomes of tiny babies. More than 400 neonatal ICUs worldwide submit data with a view to delivering the highest quality care.
Netcare:
• Scan for Life, the first preventative imaging medical facility which scans and screens the entire body for dread diseases (Rosebank Clinic).
• South Africa’s first hospital to provide echo endoscopy (EUS) which enables the gastroenterologist to view portions of the gut that were previously unreachable via conventional surgery and equipment (Unitas Hospital)
• Five Brain Resource Centres within the Netcare group’s hospitals in South Africa’s major metropolitan centres.
• Inta-operative vascular procedure units which use both percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy and thrombolysis techniques (Sunninghill Hospsital, Sunward Hospital and Union Hospital)
• Add information pertaining to the Walter Sisulu Pediatric Cardiac Unit
National Hospital Network (independently owned private hospitals):
• Advanced disc arthroplasty using an artificial disc as an alternative to traditional spinal fusion procedures. To date, this procedure has only been performed in about 1,000 cases worldwide (Arwyp Medical Centre).
• First private hospital to deliver craniopogus Type A co-joined twins (Siamese twins joined at the head) (Arwyp Medical Centre)
• State-of-the-art cardiac catheterization laboratories (Arwyp Medical Centre, Gatesville Medical Centre and Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital)
• Anterior-fusion surgery using prosthesis (Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital)
International accreditation
Enterprise-wide quality programmes have been implemented throughout the private hospital industry and, in some instances, international accreditation has been obtained and/or is pending with organisations such as COHSASA, ISO 9001 and the UK’s Health Quality service (HQS).
An unwavering commitment to international standards especially in patient care is a universal operating imperative for South Africa’s private hospitals which enables the industry to deliver quality, cost-effective medical treatment.
Foreign patient referrals
To accommodate foreign patient requests, Hasa’s member hospitals have established international helpdesk which may be contacted on the following numbers:
• Life Healthcare: +27 11 219 9000 (Janet Young) www.lifehealthcare.co.za
• Medi-Clinic:
Morningside Medi-Clinic: +27 11 282 5052
Panorama Medi-Clinic: +27 21 938 2156 www.mediclinic.co.za
• Netcare: +27 11 254 1387 www.netcare.co.za
• NHN (Independent hospitals): +27 11 394 2199 (Cindy Janse van Vuuren) www.nhn.co.za; info@nhn.co.za
• Psychiatric Focus forum: +27 11 478 0156 (Mental health care facilities) www.hasa.co.za
