Red Cross Hospital War Memorial Children's Hospital

Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital is South Africa's only dedicated child health institution and offers a comprehensive range of specialist paediatric services to children. It is a centre of excellence for the training of all categories of child health professionals.

It is the largest children’s hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides all levels of multidisciplinary care at an international level whilst taking into account the limitations of being located in a resource poor country. 

Departments in which placements are offered:

• General Paediatric Medicine 
• Paediatric Surgery
• Paediatric Trauma     
• Paediatric Neurology
• Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgery        
• Paediatric Cardiology

The Paediatric Neurology Department 

o    The neurology service sees rare and complex diseases (epilepsy, neurometabolic, neurodegenerative, neuromuscular disorders). 
o    The vision and mission of the neurology service is directed specifically towards the impact from diseases of poverty, which dominate the service load, i.e. 
    tuberculosis 
    human immunodeficiency virus type 1 
    post-streptococcal sequelae. 
o    The neurology service is directed towards building and expanding capacity to manage both complex disorders and the neglected diseases of poverty from vulnerable populations. 
o    Dedicated clinics have established large cohorts of children from the Sub-Saharan African population 
    neuromuscular disease n=300 
    epilepsy n=1600 
    neurocutaneous disorders n=100. 
o    Ongoing support of the infectious diseases service has resulted epidemiological data relating to the neurological impact of HIV-1 in childhood before and once commencing antiretroviral therapy. 
o    The service operates in the region of 80 clinics a month, with almost 4000 clinic visits a year 
o    There are 6 dedicated paediatric neurology beds but many more patients are managed on the “general wards” on a referral / advisory basis. 
o    Outreach service operates with regional specialist visits for both training and case assessment. 
o    The service assists with establishing government guidelines aimed towards optimal care in a resource poor setting. 

The Neurophysiology Department 

o    The only centre dedicated to children in sub-Saharan Africa. 
o    The centre trains clinical neurophysiology technologists 
o    Also exposes practitioners from throughout the country who require insight into neurophysiology techniques, procedures and interpretation. 
o    Over 2000 studies performed a year 
o    It is the only government centre equipped to perform video EEG telemetry on children and as such screen them for epilepsy surgery 

Southern African Training Centre

o    Currently one of the few centres in South Africa with a dedicated paediatric neurology training post. 
o    The post follows international training guidelines. 
o    To date 11 trainees fully completed training (10 now in government consultant posts) and four more complete between 2017 and 2018. 
o    The team regard training as an essential way to improve care to children with neurological conditions – we are keen to set up links with other centres throughout Africa and to offer training experiences either through attachments to our department or through invited training workshops.