On Friday, 18 July 2014, the KZN Day Clinic and Natal Fertility Clinic will officially open their doors, offering a cost-effective solution to patients requiring minimally invasive surgery.
The KZN Day Clinic has been developed with the view of rethinking the financial implications of hospital care. Technical advances in the medical arena have caused a rise in complicated and expensive equipment and procedures, which have come to be the accepted “standard of care”, thereby increasing the cost of healthcare. These developments, together with the associated increase in life expectancies, means that medical inflation now exceeds normal inflation by many times all over the world. In South Africa, the long-term weakening of the rand against the currencies in which medical products are purchased has exacerbated this issue.
“One area where advances in medicine have allowed for financial savings is the use of minimally invasive techniques and anaesthesia that leave almost no after-effects for procedures that used to be major operations,” says Dr Greg Ash, a plastic surgeon at the KZN Day Clinic. “This means that, for many procedures, patients no longer need to remain in hospital for several days but can instead be discharged on the same day.”
Day clinics have been on the rise internationally and nationally as a response to this opportunity – and with good reason. The costs of running a day clinic are far lower than those of a full-service acute hospital. A minute in theatre in an acute hospital costs approximately R160; a day clinic, by comparison, can afford to charge only R94. When it comes to fertility treatments or cosmetic surgery, where patients are often covering the cost themselves, this can be a huge advantage.
The KZN Day Clinic will be a private clinic, open to all patients and medical aids, and will house two theatres and 11 day beds with capacity for some 15 patients a day. Though initially conceptualised for fertility-related procedures and as a home for the Natal Fertility Clinic, the clinic has since evolved to include plastic surgery (cosmetic and reconstructive); orthopaedic surgery; ear, nose and throat surgery; maxillofacial and dental surgery; as well as gynaecological and urological services.
“We have a shortage of acute hospital beds for sick patients in South Africa and it is unnecessary to occupy these beds with patients who do not require all the facilities,” says Dr Ash. “Day clinics offer a cost-effective alternative for many procedures, benefitting both patients and their pockets. We are pleased to be providing this alternative to the greater Durban community.”
Dr Dumani Kula, Head of Hospital Contracting at Discovery Health, will oversee the opening of the KZN Day Clinic with Professor Thinus Kruger, former head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Tygerburg Hospital and a pioneer in the field of male infertility, opening the Natal Fertility Clinic.
Contact the KZN Day Clinic on 031 830 3030.