Catholic Hospital ushers in medical future

FOR THE past 103 years, the hospital on the ‘Roman hill’ in the centre of Windhoek has provided physical and spiritual healthcare to Namibians.

Today, the Roman Catholic Hospital, which opened as a 10-bed hospital, offers 123 beds, two state-of-the-art new hospital wings which provide luxury private rooms, and cutting-edge technology that is comparable to global medical standards. The Catholic Hospital kicked off an elaborate upgrade and renovations scheme in 2007, on its 100th anniversary. The hospital is proud that the N$92 million project was funded solely by investments and savings scraped together over the past 50 years, with ‘no help from Rome’, a Sister jokingly pointed out. One year ago, the first phase of the project was completed with the opening of a sleek two-storey building boasting 34 private rooms, equipped with en-suite bathrooms and access to a spacious balcony with a view of the city.This month, the second and final phase of the upgrade project ends, with the second wing to be opened at the end of November.This wing, consisting of four storeys, is set to usher in a new level of medical observation and treatment available in Namibia, due to the high-tech and digital equipment and technologies involved. ‘With these new developments, we are trying to provide state-of-the-art equipment to our patients,’ Sister Amadea Donadilla, the head administrator of the hospital, said this week. The first floor has two brand-new surgical theatres, the second floor a 10-bed intensive care unit and the third floor a digital medical imagining lab.Namibia’s second cardiac unit, the first in a private hospital, is housed on the fourth floor.Some of the highlights of the four-storey hospital wing include the full digitisation brought in by the private company Medical Imaging Radiology Practice, which provides imaging services to the hospital.The company has invested in the most up-to-date MRI equipment, CT scanner and digital X-ray machines available on the market. All images taken of patients are housed in a digital archive and are accessible to doctors throughout the hospital and at consulting rooms. The cardiac unit, which opens barely a month after the State cardiac unit was inaugurated at the Windhoek State Hospital, is equipped with a ‘cath lab’ and one of the new surgical theatres is equipped with the latest equipment used in open-heart surgery.Sister Donadilla says the cardiac unit was developed because patients with medical aid ‘should be treated at a private hospital’.The 10-bed ICU is built in a ‘radial’ structure, ensuring optimal monitoring as nurses who sit in the central observation pod are able to keep a close eye on all units at the same time. In addition, the ICU is a computerised version, constantly updating patient status and alerting nursing staff and doctors on monitors at the central station. The official blessing and opening of the new hospital wing takes place on November 29.

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