General information

The name Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, is not ethnic. It was derived from two people.

 

• Chris Hani - who was a freedom fighter during the anti-apartheid struggle and who was assassinated in 1993, and
• John Albert Baragwanath - a Cornishman from England who settled in these parts during the late 1800’

Bara is a training centre for all categories of staff.  We train approximately 60% of the medical students from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, including the provision of postgraduate and undergraduate medical training.  

Wits university recently opened a learning centre at the hospital, which will simplify life for the students as they will no longer need to return to the medical school for lectures.

Bara is a specialist referral hospital providing curative services for ±3,5 million people from the Southern & Western parts of Gauteng. However, we often receive referrals, for specialist treatment, from all the surrounding African countries as well. The hospital is situated on the southern border of Soweto, and was built, during the Second World War, to serve as a military hospital for the British troops fighting in the Middle East.

The Casualty, Emergency and Outpatient Unit is the busiest section of the hospital.  Here we receive about 350 patients per day, which could easily double over a weekend. We annually admit about 150 000 patients, all-inclusive, and treat ±500 000 outpatients.  As from April 2004, these sections are part of a major revitalisation programme implemented by the Gauteng Department of Health and will be completely rebuilt.  

Approximately 70% of the cases handled, in our emergency departments, are trauma related, specifically motor vehicle accidents and assaults.  We also receive and treat an average of 160 gunshot victims per month.  Bara was opened as a civilian hospital in 1948 with 480 beds, which have grown since to 3 400 beds. However, due to financial constraints, as well as separating the different levels of care, we are only able to use 2 865 of the available beds. 

Although we only function at a 65 – 80% bed occupancy, the hospital remains one of the busiest in the country, if not the world.  Most of the medical wards function on 95 – 100% bed occupancy due to HIV/Aids related diseases. 

If all the corridors in the hospital should be put into a straight line it will be more than 10 kilometres long. The hospital was entered in the 1997 Guinness Book of Records as the largest hospital in the world. For the financial year 2004/2005 the hospital budget was over R910 million

St John Eye Hospital is the largest hospital of its kind in the country. It is situated on the western border of Baragwanath Hospital and contains 111 beds and the most modern and sophisticated equipment to detect and treat any kind of eye problem. St John Eye Hospital is considered a world leader in intra-ocular lens implantation in neonates and children. It has 3 fully equipped theatres, which are open 7 days a week and where an average of 4 000 operations are done.  This hospital handles approximately 70 000 patients annually.  

The Maternity Hospital is relatively new, as it was only built in the middle 70’s.  There is an existing protocol for referring patients to this hospital, which include all patients suffering form maternal complications and older women.  We see and treat about 60 000 patients here per year.  Due to the complicated cases we receive we have a fairly high incidence of Caesarean Sections - ±30%. Referred cases are seen at the Ante Natal Clinic until time of confinement. 

Other Hospitals close By:

      Mulbarton Hospital.   Only 10 kms from this Guest House

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25 True North Road Mulbarton 2059 Tel:  +27 (0) 11 682 4300 Fax: +27 (0) 11 682 2391

   Garden City Clinic.        Only 8 kms from this Guest House.                    

35 Bartlett Road, Mayfair West, 2092 Tel:  +27 (0)11 495 5000 Fax: +27 (0)11 495 5055

The Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital

Johannesburg Hospital.      Only 12 kms from this Guest House.

The Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital is an accredited central hospital with 1088 beds serving patients from across the Gauteng province and neighboring provinces. It offers inpatient and specialist outpatient’s services mainly level 3 and level 2.

The hospital’s professional and support staff exceeds 4000 people. Support services are delivered through a mix of in-house, outsourced and other government agencies, e.g. maintenance through Public Works.

The hospital offers a full range of tertiary, secondary and highly specialized services. The costs of providing these services to the population of Gauteng Province and in addition to the neighbouring provinces are funded by a National Tertiary Services Grant as well as Provincial allocation. The hospital is located in Parktown and serves in theory as well as a referral hospital for a number of hospitals in its referral chain. The services are highly expensive, with unique specialist skills and are high tech which accounts for the cost per patient compared to primary health care centres.

The only public hospital in Gauteng to be acknowledged as the Best Public Hospital for four (4) consecutive years from 2003 to 2007 by the readers of a major publication, The Star.

The Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital has a private wing Folateng a Sotho name meaning “Place of healing”. Each ward gives the patient the quality and convenience of private health care with specialist physicians and cutting edge technology that only a long-established hospital has the capacity to offer.

The hospital is also the main teaching hospital for The University of the Witwatersrand, faculty of Health Sciences. The institution provides the service base for undergraduate and post-graduate training in all area of health professions. The joint staff produces world-class research and collaborates with several universities in the continent and abroad.

The Johannesburg Hospital School is situated inside the hospital where learners well enough to leave the wards go to classes. This reduces feelings of depression and normalizes their stay in the hospital.

SOUTH RAND HOSPITAL      Only 6 kms from this Guest House.
Private Bag X1
ROSETTENVILLE
2130

Tel: (011) 435 0022
Fax: (011) 435 0038

 

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