Limpopo Leader - University of Limpopo

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Professor Peter FranksP A G E 1 6Professor Jabu Mbokazi
Limpopo’s very own medical training platformIT’S COMING AT LAST: A FULLMEDICAL SCHOOL IN POLOKWANEfFOR AT LEAST FIVE YEARS, THERE’S BEEN TALK OFTHE ESTABLISHMENT OF A TERTIARY HOSPITAL ANDMEDICAL SCHOOL IN LIMPOPO. IT’S OFFICIALLYBEING CALLED A NEW ‘HEALTH SCIENCESTRAINING PLATFORM’.The in-principle decision to embark upon thisdevelopment was bound up with the complexities ofthe merger between Medunsa in Gauteng and the oldUniversity of the North. The process has beencomplicated by the involvement of the National andProvincial Departments of Education and theprovincial Department of Health, not to mention theaccommodation of the various interests in the twocampuses of the merged University of Limpopo. On thesurface, sometimes, the promise of new health andteaching facilities has seemed a distinctly on-off affair.But this time it’s definite. Key preparations havestarted in earnest: the facilities are on the way. Hereare some of the basic facts.The whole project is mandated and supported bya national cabinet decision. A 600-bed hospital is tobe built at the Edupark campus in Polokwane. It’ll bea multistorey affair so as to limit the distancebetween departments. The cost will be in the regionof R1,2-billion, and the hope is that construction willcommence later this year (2009). A detailedenvironmental impact study is already under way.But there’s a lot more to the project than this. In theplanning stage is the actual medical school buildingand of course residential blocks for staff and students.A delegation of university and provincial personnelwill be going to Australia and India soon to look atthe spatial relationship between hospitals and medicalschools in some of the newest developments of thiskind in the world.‘We’re looking for facilities here that are worldclass,’ says Professor Peter Franks, the University’sDeputy Vice-Chancellor Academic and the Turfloopcampus principal. ‘We’re determined to make thePolokwane teaching platform the best we possibly can.’On behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Franks chairs thetask team that has been established to co-ordinate thewide-ranging activities that are necessary to get thenew facilities off the ground, as well as the teachingthat needs to take place for the facilities to be fullyand effectively utilised.The task team was established at a workshop thattook place last November and was attended byrepresentatives of the University of Limpopo (fromTurfloop, Medunsa and the embryonic medical campusat the Polokwane Provincial Hospital), the LimpopoProvincial Department of Health and SocialDevelopment, as well as the Limpopo Office of thePremier and Provincial Treasury.The task team appointed several key committees tofacilitate the alignment of the vision of the Polokwanemedical training platform with various specialisedaspects of the university as a whole. These committeesdeal with curriculum issues, staffing requirements,logistics (including a full assessment of facilitiesrequired and a transport strategy that will link medicalstudents with the two provincial hospitals as well asthe Turfloop campus), and financial matters.The hope is that the first medical students –probably around 50 of them, but increasing forsubsequent annual intakes – will be registered at thestart of 2010. Of course, the new facilities won’t beready. They’ll start their studies in the sciencedepartments on the Turfloop campus and do theirclinical work (from year two) in the existing Polokwaneand Mankweng hospitals while the Health SciencesTraining Platform is being built.This projected 2010 commencement date is not amoment too soon for Dr Morwanphaga Nkadimeng,senior general manager of health care services inLimpopo’s Department of Health. ‘This country is desperatefor doctors,’ he asserts. ‘We simply can’t affordany more delays.’Nkadimeng supported his statement by pointing outthat South Africa had only 20 000 doctors registeredP A G E 1 7
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Page 3 and 4: LETTERS TO THE EDITORA REQUEST FROM
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Page 7 and 8: The Bigger PictureThe original moti
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Page 21 and 22: Limpopo’s very own medical traini
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Limpopo Leader - University of Limpopo

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