They say every little bit helps, especially if that is to the tune of almost R250 000. That is how much the Hike2Heal Cape Town group recently raised for Groote Schuur Hospital’s (GSH) Surgical Recovery Project.
Fresh off the five-day Otter Trail hike completed on Wednesday 2 March, Zaheer Parker of Hike2Heal shared that they wanted to turn their journey into a social-impact cause.
He said: “As a group our initial aim was to have fun. However, when we got over the initial excitement of preparing for this adventure, one of our group members reminded us about our social responsibility. So, we started discussing which charity to support and another friend recommended we look into the GSH Trust’s Surgical Recoveries Initiative.”
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and hospital resources pivoting away from non-urgent services to Covid response services, GSH needs to perform over 6 000 surgeries that have fallen behind. The aim of the initiative is to perform 1 500 of these essential surgeries over the next 12 months, with the plan of continuing in the following two years to ensure all surgeries are complete. But the cost of the surgeries for this year alone will be R15 million.
Parker says the group’s call to action, “We hike so others may heal”, is meant to galvanise support in making inroads in this backlog.
“We can all sit back and say it’s governments responsibility. But the burden of active citizenry requires us to take action because that responsibility is an essential part of living in a society such as South Africa.”
Parker explains they were told that R10 000 would ensure one patient’s surgery. Leveraging their networks and social circles, they hoped to raise R100 000. But thanks to the support they received, both locally and from overseas, they were able to far exceed their target.
“We are so grateful that GSH Trust allowed us to be a part of their initiative and not only raise awareness but funding for 20-plus patients,” he adds.
Kristy Evans, executive director of GSH Trust, the hospital’s fundraising arm, says Hike2Heal’s contribution highlights the significant impact a small group of individuals can have on the changing lives of so many.
She explains the Covid-19 pandemic brought unparalleled crisis to the healthcare system.
“Waves of critically ill patients affected by Covid-19 necessitated the dramatic restructuring of healthcare facilities and internal redistribution of resources,” Evans says.
Among the many other non-Covid-19 services significantly affected by the pandemic, tertiary academic elective surgical care almost ground to a halt.
According to GSH, in 2019, the hospital conducted 16 587 operations. In 2020, this number dropped to 10 409; by end August last year only 7 283 had been conducted.
Catching up on the backlog will require two extra theatre spaces, that will be run at the same time as normal services, which, in turn, will require hiring extra staff to run these spaces. Evans says the cost of these surgeries fall outside of the normal operational budget of the hospital.
With fundraising for the project kicking off in February, the trust received over 150 donations, ranging from R10 to R180 000 (raising close to R600 000 for essential surgeries) within the first four weeks. Gift of the Givers, the first strategic partner in this project, also recently committed R5 million.
Evans says funds raised will ensure that surgery is completed for individuals who have been waiting more than two years to have their joints replaced, cataracts removed or cancer surgeries performed.
The first surgeries are scheduled to be done in May.
“We are incredibly grateful for Hike2Heal’s dedication to this cause,” she adds.
“The journey, however, is not over. We still need to ensure we hit our goal of R15 million for essential surgeries in 2022. We are looking for individuals, corporates, businesses to partner with us urgently.”
