Professor Salome Maswime Picture: Supplied
The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) head of the Division of Global Surgery, Professor Salome Maswime, has been selected to lead a newly designated World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre. The centre will be crucial in supporting countries in moving their health systems toward universal health coverage.
Velisile Bukula, the head of the communication and marketing department at UCT, said the centre’s work would prioritise effective organisation, planning and patient movement across the health system, ensuring timely access to quality care that aligns with users' needs.
WHO has collaborating centres in more tan 80 member states. The academic sites work with WHO on a wide range of priority areas including nursing, occupational health, communicable diseases, nutrition, mental health, chronic diseases and health technologies.
Bukula said Maswime had been appointed as the director of the newly designated WHO Collaborating Centre for Integrated Clinical Care.
“This prestigious designation underscores UCT’s commitment to advancing global health through research, advocacy, and evidence-based practice, particularly in resource-limited settings.”
He said the WHO Collaborating Centre at UCT would support the organisation’s mission to strengthen timely access to people-centred primary, emergency, critical and operative care, with a particular focus on improving health care in resource-limited settings.
“With Maswime as director – closely supported by the centre’s deputy director, Associate Professor Willem Stassen from the Division of Emergency Medicine – the centre will engage in cutting-edge research and evidence generation to support the implementation of high-quality, integrated clinical care globally,” he said.
The approach highlights the collaborative effort between the departments at UCT, and their shared focus on improving equitable access to health-care services, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Bukula said the centre was multidisciplinary, engaging a wide range of experts from across the departments of Surgery; Family Community and Emergency Care; and Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine.
Maswime described her selection as a powerful recognition of the work that they have been doing at UCT and the potential it has to impact the future of health care globally.
“Personally, this is the culmination of over 10 years of collaboration with the WHO, and I’m excited about the opportunities this formal partnership brings. It’s a new beginning for us to influence global health positively, especially in Africa,” she said.
Maswime said their work has always been about improving access to care, especially for those who need it most.
“The divisions represented in the collaborating centre are deeply committed to understanding how health-care systems can be enhanced across the world, and I believe our alignment with WHO’s objectives made us a strong candidate for this designation,” she said.