SIEMENS South Africa has joined forces with several other organisations to provide a 100-bed separate modular hospital to the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in East London, boosting the province’s fight against a second wave of COVID-19.
The partners include Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Eastern Cape Department of Health, Solidarity Fund, Siemens Healthineers , Siemens Caring Hands and Aspen Pharmacare.
Many local health care facilities have taken strain, particularly in underdeveloped communities of South Africa.
This modular solution with a 100-bed capacity will be erected as an extension of the hospital for the purpose of easing the burden on the hospital and providing adequate, quality healthcare.
It will provide the main hospital with sorely needed additional capacity of 10 new ICU beds, 90 ward beds, diagnostics services and a pharmacy store. The separate facility to the main hospital will ensure access to equipment that is current, efficient and of superior quality. The hand-over of the hospital module is projected to take place in the first quarter of 2021.
“As a multinational organisation, we are deeply committed to the well-being of the country. The collaboration of all stakeholders involved solidifies our Business to Society mindset that private companies must take up the call to contribute towards the prosperity and progress of the societies that they operate in,” said Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa.
A financial grant of up to €3.5 million (R65 million) has been contributed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Globally, Siemens AG has established a worldwide relief fund to help combat the pandemic under the auspices of the community-serving nonprofit organisation Siemens Caring Hands.
All Siemens employees could make monetary donations to Siemens Caring Hands for this effort. Siemens AG then matched every amount donated, effectively doubling any donation made to Siemens Caring Hands. The organisation is using these donations to deliver rapid aid to people affected by the pandemic worldwide. Siemens Caring Hands has donated €520,000 (R9.6 million) towards the modular hospital solution in the Eastern Cape.
Aspen Pharmacare Group Senior Executive: Strategic Trade Development Holdings Limited, Stavros Nicolaou, said, “Aspen operates important pharmaceutical manufacturing operations in Port Elizabeth — which includes COVID vaccine formulation and filling capability — and East London, where Cecilia Makiwane is situated. We endeavor to continuously make sustainable contributions towards the communities in which we operate”.
