Uitenhage provincial hospital sees more clearly after PPS donation

Doctors training at the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital in the Eastern Cape will now be given the opportunity to perform essential eye surgeries after PPS, the specialist financial services provider for graduate professionals, donated a surgical microscope to the hospital worth R175,000.

Gerhard Joubert, Head of Group Marketing and Stakeholder Relations at PPS, says the donation was critical as the new eye unit, which was opened in January this year, requires highly specialised and expensive equipment. “We are very pleased to have been able to provide financial assistance to the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital. The surgical microscope is vital for doctors to perform eye surgeries but importantly the new unit will also play a pivotal role in teaching trainee surgeons how to operate.”

He says this is one of the reasons PPS chose Uitenhage as the donation will not only help current doctors perform surgeries but will also assist in training new medical practitioners. “We hope that our donation will have an ongoing positive effect, ensuring that many more doctors are skilled in this essential practice as well as patients in need of essential eye surgery receiving the treatment they require.”

Dr Juan Deseta from the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital says that the surgical microscope is vital as it forms the core of ophthalmology practice. “The main objective of opening the eye clinic in Uitenhage was to enable the hospital to provide cataracts surgeries. Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide yet perfect vision can often be restored by a simple extraction. However, without the necessary equipment we simply cannot provide an eye service at the hospital.”

“We are very grateful to PPS as the Department of Health has a limited budget.”