Grahamstown Rotary has donated a much-needed ultrasound machine to the Settlers' Hospital palliative care unit. A function was held on Monday 29 August to officially hand over the equipment, which is the first of its kind at the hospital, said hospice clinical services manager, Trish Gillies.
Grahamstown Rotary has donated a much-needed ultrasound machine to the Settlers' Hospital palliative care unit. A function was held on Monday 29 August to officially hand over the equipment, which is the first of its kind at the hospital, said hospice clinical services manager, Trish Gillies.
“What we have [had]to do is to send them (patients) down to the main hospital that often requires waiting for transport for anything up to a week,” said Dr Celia Jameson, who runs the palliative care unit.
“It is going to make a fantastic difference to our patients to be able to do things straight away,” she said.
Palliative care is a specialised area of healthcare that treats patients that have passed the curative stage of their illness. The unit has a ward for hospice patients that take care of those who are terminally ill.
The ultrasound machine is similar to an x-ray that looks at soft tissues in the body, and hospice workers can use it to complete a patient’s prognosis.
“We use it for HIV patients to find out if they have a disease in their livers, kidneys or spleens,” said Jameson.
“And then the cancer patients to see whether they have got secondary spread into their abdominal cavity,” she added.
Rotary in partnership with Romex, an international organisation dealing in medical equipment, sponsored the ultrasound machine.
“It’s in excellent working order," said Rotary president, Robin Palmer, "and on the market it would be worth about R150 000.”
The preparations for obtaining this machine were all done by Rotarian Bill Mills and his helpers. “I think that the real credit must go to Celia who has been pressing for the machine,” said Mills.
Jameson said she was very grateful to the Grahamstown Rotary, “It’s a fantastic gift.”
