The programme was initiated in 2015 to meet the unmet need for specialist palliative care for children and their families in the Western Cape. We see children both in public and private hospitals, as well as in our own Out-Patient clinic. Outreach is provided to select  institutions and communities. We provide education and training in PPC and are involved in policy work provincially and nationally.

Paedspal operates outpatient clinics four times a week, from its offices situated at the Stonefountain Terrace building, conveniently located adjacent to Rondebosch Medical Centre, across the road from Red Cross War Memorial Children’s hospital. Two of these clinics are full multidisciplinary clinics (both medical and psychosocial teams), and two of these clinics provide additional psychosocial support. The Clinic team comprises of Paediatricians, a Medical Officer, a Social Worker supported by a Social Auxiliary Worker, Family counsellor and a team of Therapists, including art, music and aromatherapy.

Paedspal provides specialist consultative palliative care services to babies and children referred by staff from Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital  and Mowbray Maternity Hospitals. We focus on more complex patients and spend time building generalist palliative care capacity through ward rounds, education and the development of useful tools to guide practice. 

The Paedspal Outreach programme provides consultative palliative care services to children being treated at children’s homes (St Joseph’s and Sivuyile Children’s Homes) and on the West Coast (Atlantis and Vredenburg).

Education and training are key components of Paedspal’s work to address the skills shortage of Paediatric palliative expertise in the Western Cape and to ensure that palliative care is integrated within the public and private health care systems. Paedspal provides sensitisation training to hospitals and institutions across the Province and runs more in-depth Saturday Seminars on relevant topics in Paediatric Palliative Care.

Many of Paedspal’s employees are also employed part-time by the University of Cape Town and are responsible for both undergraduate and post-graduate training in PPC through the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Policy development and research are key elements needed to ensure that palliative care services are accessible to all in need. Paedspal, in partnership with other palliative care providers under the umbrella of the South African Children’s Palliative Care Network (PatchSA), continues to engage with key policy stakeholders .

Our CEO sits on the Provincial Palliative Care Task team and is part of the Paediatric Expert Review Committee that advises the government on the Essential Drugs needed for Palliative Care, on a National level. We are seeking to develop our research programmes in the future in partnership with King’s College London and through the University of Cape Town’s Paediatric Palliative Care division that also employs many of our team members in a part time capacity.

Our Neopal service provides a weekly consultative ward round at Mowbray Maternity hospital as well as a weekly music therapy support group for the mothers of admitted newborns, many of whom spend a long time in the hospital with their sick and/or premature babies.