The Groote Schuur Hospital Trust is launching its own plan of action to support emergency surgeries in a bid to save more lives, more effectively.
Cape Town, South Africa (16 April 2025) — The Groote Schuur Hospital Trust is launching a powerful plan of action to support emergency surgeries; a project aimed at raising funds with the hopes that the financial boost will create more capacity for the hospital and ultimately, save more lives.
According to Trauma surgeon Dr Deidré McPherson, the Emergency Surgery Project could make a massive difference in the world of trauma care.
Dr McPherson explains that trauma surgeries work very differently from other kinds of procedures in terms of time and resources. Because of the gravity time-sensitivity adds to trauma cases, it can impact other patients in receiving care they also need.
“The other general surgical specialties have set theatre days, but trauma unfortunately doesn’t. Because we’re under pressure for access to surgical time, every second week we have to take their theatre lists for trauma surgery, which means they lose a list—and that means elective cases such as cancers et cetera are pushed out,” says Dr McPherson.
But having trauma patients wait for surgery increases risks.
“From a trauma perspective, when patients wait longer to get to theatre it ultimately means worse patient outcomes,” Dr McPherson explains.”It’s been shown many times that the sooner the trauma patients get to theatre and gets surgery, the better the outcome. The longer we delay the surgery, the higher the chances of increased bleeding, sepsis infection and so on and the higher the chance that they end up in ICU. And then that creates another block because the ICU is used for the trauma patients and there’s less space for elective patients.”
Dr McPherson says that damage control surgery often kicks in when patients have endured a prolonged wait, which can lead them to return to theatre several times.
“We do an abbreviated surgery just to get them through that initial injury, and then they go to the ICU and then that patient goes back to theatre again. And if that’s not the definitive surgery, then sometimes they have to go back again and again.”
All this is due to a delay in getting the patients to the theatre.
When this happens, patients are impacted in their own silos of care and recovery, while other patients outside of trauma also face the consequences of a backlogged hospital.
Emergency Funds to the Rescue
As such, the project to support emergency surgeries could greatly contribute to the resources needed; ultimately positively impacting not just trauma patients or staff, but the entire ecosystem of responsibilities at Groote Schuur.
The Groote Schuur Hospital Trust has plans to add 70 emergency theatre lists in one year. These would be strategically scheduled before each weekend, during long weekends and public holidays (when trauma-related cases typically arise). If all goes according to plan, the team could perform around 200 extra emergency surgeries.
Businesses or individuals who wish to support the project can find out more and make donations here.
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