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The South African Federation of Hospital Engineering (SAFHE) has awarded the CSIR's Geoff Abbott with honorary life membership, which has been bestowed on only five individuals in the more than 30 years of the organisation's existence.
SAFHE encourages professionals, technologists and technicians to cooperate in the dissemination and development of information regarding the design, engineering, maintenance and management of healthcare facilities. The body promotes all aspects of design, engineering and technology, including construction, commissioning and maintenance of hospital buildings, plant, equipment, machinery and apparatus.
Abbott was presented with the award during the biennial conference organised by SAFHE, attended by some 350 participants from both the public and private sectors. The conference dealt with sustainable and cost-effective healthcare services in South Africa.
Abbott presented a paper on an affordable public health estate, providing a review of the 2008 Health Infrastructure Barometer, published by the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Along with CSIR Built Environment colleague Peta de Jager, Abbott contributed the health chapter for the Barometer publication. "The state of the nation's health has a clear and direct impact on the economic growth and development of the country. Investment in health services is key to securing the nation's health and the health estate - health infrastructure - is an important enabler towards successful healthcare delivery," explains Abbott.
"It does not help to simply increase budgets and spending on health; to optimise our healthcare infrastructure we need to address a number of interrelated areas. We need to understand the relationships between access to services, investment, affordability, systems and healthcare outcomes. Research programmes can provide the evidence base necessary to inform both long-term strategic planning as well as short-term delivery in health," Abbott comments.
At the CSIR, he is involved in the broad field of planning and designing health facilities. He often goes on field trips, as the team's major current project deals with the roll-out of infrastructure for dealing with drug-resistant TB. The CSIR is providing appropriate guidelines relating to infrastructure needed to accommodate long-term TB patients.
Enquiries: CSIR Communication
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