A recent report by the SEER (Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results of the US National Cancer Institute) disclosed that the rate of cancer among children and young people under the age of 20 is one in every 300. This means that 8,400 children are added each year to the number of patients suffering from cancer, 50 per cent of whom die for lack of efficient healthcare. Egypt’s Children’s Cancer Hospital—famously known as “57357”, the bank account number through which donations to the new hospital are contributed—was modelled after St Jude’s Children Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and was set up with donations from Egyptian and Arab benefactors. The hospital provides free treatment and continues to depend on a flow of donations to continue with its work.
Disneyland
“The hospital aspires to apply the most advanced techniques in terms of treating cancer,” Sherif Abul-Naga, the hospital manager, told Watani. “It provides free treatment to all, and seeks to offer high-standard services to patients via cooperation with world medical institutions in the field to provide continuous staff training.”
In spite of the unfavourable economic climate the hospital has managed to collect huge sums of money through donations, even from people with limited income such as students. A fund raising team was formed and trained by experts in Egypt, the United States and Canada.
Dr Abul-Naga countered the criticism that has been levelled at the perceived lavishness of the hospital’s inner and outer design. “The design was chosen to cheer up patients and their families,” he claimed. “It would be inconceivable for an ugly building to provide a good service.”
Dr Abul-Naga said the interior was tailored to a child-friendly climate, and colours were chosen that raised an optimistic mood in patients. Units were designed in a circular manner to guarantee a speedy reaction by the staff to patient demands. “One child said he thought the hospital was like Disneyland,” he said.
The hospital has 185 beds, and that could be increased to 350. There is an intensive care unit; a specialised clinical pharmacy; outpatient clinics to accept 200 to 300 children; and clinics specialising in cardiology, ophthalmology and dentistry. It also has facilities to treat children with weak immune systems. The hospital has departments for psychology and psychoanalysis, and a system for schooling bedbound children. Equally important, it runs a support programme for parents, to qualify them to give their children proper care and boost their spirits.
Constant flow
Project planning started in 1999, and the hospital’s 20,000-sq.m. area was a gift from Cairo governorate. A specialist American organisation executed the plan in cooperation with National Tumour Institute.
Between 175 and 200 patients visit the hospital every day, and resources development manager Hanaa’ Farid said consulting rooms were designed to provide an atmosphere of privacy for patients and doctors. “Modern methods in treating cancer are based on home treatment, so the hospital contains advanced clinics to follow up on children who have their treatment at home,” Dr Farid said.
The procedure and quality manager, Khaled al-Nouzi, is responsible for equipment that exists nowhere else in the Arab world. “The scan department is one of the most advanced in the world,” Dr al-Nouzi said.
“Although the hospital depends on donations, it aims to adopt a scientific method to achieve sustainability,” said Nermeen Abdel-Salam who runs the volunteer group. The hospital was trying,” she said, “to sign long-term contracts with local and foreign corporations to guarantee a constant flow of financial resources. There is a bank deposit to hold donations, as well as an endowment fund to finance the hospital.