Speaking Notes for
Cathy Séguin, Vice-President, International Affairs, SickKids

  • Good morning - Your Excellency[SandraMcCardell], Deputy Chairperson Nana Magomola, Sibongile Mkhabela and theNelson Mandela Children’s Hospital TrustBoard members, the Nelson Mandela Children’s HospitalTeam and staff, donors, families and honoured guests.
  • As mentioned, my name is Cathy Séguin and I am Vice-President, International Affairs for The Hospital for Sick Children, known as ‘SickKids’. Our hospital is located in Toronto, Canada.
  • I am pleased to stand before you today as a representative of SickKids and a proud partner of Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Trust.
  • Today, we are celebrating this important partnership, and acknowledging all of the significant milestones we have accomplished in this first ten months of our partnership.
  • We are also acknowledging and thanking the Government of Canada, through the Department of Global Affairs Canada for facilitating and supporting this initiative.
  • Thank you, Your Excellency for your leadership and support in helping to realize this project. We would not be here without your support.
  • Since we are so far from our home in Canada, I thought it might be helpful to give you a bit of an introduction to SickKids so that you might understand who we are.
  • And why and how this partnership came to be.
  • Established in 1875, we are Canada’s largest academic health centre dedicated to child health.
  • With over 10,000 staff, students and volunteers, we are a large and passionate team of individuals who work everyday to fulfill our vision of Healthier Children. A Better World.
  • As an organization, we are uniquely structured, with the integration of research, learning, and care as the hallmark of our approach to patient and family-centred care.
  • We are leaders in many aspects of paediatric careand research and offer a wide range of specialized and ambulatory services, caring for more than 300,000 patients every year.
  • Our staff are diverse, coming from all parts of the globe. We come together, under one banner to provide excellence care, to strive toward new discoveries and innovation, and to educate and share knowledge with students who practice at SickKids and around the world.
  • Through our work, SickKids is expanding our global reach to build sustainable, integrated programs and improve the delivery of health care for all children.
  • Which brings us to today, and to this wonderful partnership.
  • As Bongi explained, the role SickKids plays in this partnership is to help build the capacity within the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital to implement innovative governance, management and operations systems, and enhance knowledge and skills in paediatric services.
  • But what does this all mean, in practical terms?
  • Over the past 10 months or so, our collective SickKids-NCMH team has made great strides in achieving excellent standards for this hospital.
  • Our SickKids project management team of 5 people, working in close collaboration with the NCMH Commissioning Team, has facilitated and coordinated the visits of 22 subject matter experts who have traveled from SickKids to Johannesburg.
  • Working with the NMCH team and health care professionals within the South African community, we have covered topics including:
  • Infection Prevention and Control;
  • Quality and Patient Safety;
  • Nursing Program Development; and
  • Acute Care Transport
  • Simulation Education;
  • Process Design;
  • Communications, Strategy;
  • This work has contributed to a new hospital policy and procedures framework for NMCH.
  • The policies are being developed and customized here on the ground, and while informed by SickKids’ knowledge and experience, they have been designed to establish NMCH as a world-class facility.
  • We have also provided several knowledge exchange opportunities:
  • We have engaged with paediatric healthcare professionals across the Gauteng province to develop a more integrated approach to children’s care.
  • And we have also hosted members of the NMCH team in Canada, immersing individuals within our hospital and giving them access to our people, our facilities and our resources.
  • This has been an incredibly rich and mutually beneficial exercise as we learn from one another and take away new ways of thinking and doing.
  • And our teams have developed together various communications strategies which will assist NMCH in sharing their stories – with their staff, with their patients and with the community at large.
  • And as this project is visionary, so too, are the people who are leading it. A comprehensive three-year strategic plan has been developed which has helped to establish objectives and guide the project for the coming years.
  • The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital is a wonderfully exciting project. One that my team and I feel incredibly fortunate to play a small part in.
  • Much like Nelson Mandela’s vision, SickKids believes that where you live shouldn’t determine if you live. And as one of the world’s foremost centres dedicated to children’s care, research and education, we believe we have a mandate to not just care for the children within our city but beyond our borders.
  • We spend each and everyday working towards our SickKids vision of Healthier Children, and a Better World. And I can’t think of a greater embodiment of this vision than through this partnership with Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.
  • To all of our friends within the NMCH Trust, and the NMCH team, thank you.
  • Thank you for your leadership, your teamwork, and your determination to honour the promise and fulfill Madiba’s vision. You have truly built a wonderful, world-class centre, dedicated to the health and well-being of the children of Southern Africa.
  • I know that I speak for the entire SickKids team when I say how proud we are to be a part of this project and how much we look forward to our continued partnership.
  • In addition to the generous support of the Government of Canada, we are also indebted to our community of supporters back home.
  • We would not be able to expand our reach without the generosity of groups such as the Kadey Family Charitable Trust and Mr. Geoff Matus. Their gifts will support the SickKids-NMCHTraining Initiative which will provide support for fellowships, nursing, allied health professionals and Child Life training programs.
  • I can see through the work that is being accomplished and the milestones being met, and also by the strong personal bonds that have formed amongst all of the teams and within the community, how successful this partnership has become.
  • This building is beautiful, the facilities are cutting edge, the team is world class, and we are so pleased to partner with such an accomplished organization and work toward this monumental goal.
  • Thank you.

Created by: Janice Nicholson Reviewed by: Gwen Burrow 1