Our Flagships

Wits Donald Gordon
Medical Centre

A university owned Academic Hospital training specialists and sub-specialists.

Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre

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he University of Witwatersrand Health Sciences Faculty has a decades-long reputation for training amongst the best medical specialists in the world. In the 1990’s, however, this was threatened by government policy which shifted resources from the tertiary care public teaching hospitals in which specialists were trained, to primary and secondary care facilities. The faculty was also concerned about the ability of the public sector to invest in new technology and remain competitive at international standards, which would impact on the training of doctors at all levels. In response to this, Wits decided to establish a private academic hospital in which to supplement the teaching of specialists and subspecialists.

In 2002, the University, in partnership with the Donald Gordon Foundation, responded to this crisis by acquiring the Kenridge Hospital and a number of adjacent buildings in Parktown, Johannesburg. We renovated, rebuilt and equipped what became the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, the only Private Academic Hospital in the country.

Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre

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aving successfully encouraged selected private practitioners to join its mission, the hospital’s occupancy grew, becoming profitable within a few years. The hospital runs at maximum capacity and has established itself as a referral centre for complex surgery in the fields of hepatobiliary surgery, colorectal surgery, vascular surgery and oncology in particular. The first private liver transplant unit was established in 2004, and the centre now hosts the largest solid organ transplant programme in the country.

All profits generated at the facility are used to fund the training of specialists and sub-specialists. All training programmes are fully integrated and complementary to the existing training programmes within the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences.

The training of specialists started for the first time in 2007 when the first trainees were appointed. Since then, it has grown from three registrars (training to be specialists) and one fellow (specialists training in a subspeciality) to seventeen fellowships and six registrars. A total of 110 specialists and sub-specialists have been funded since 2007, while 654 trainees have received a period of training at the facility as part of the rotational training with the other sites in the Wits Health Sciences Faculty Training Platform.

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n 2014, the WDGMC Research Unit was established, the first of its kind in the private health care sector in South Africa. The unit has been successful in mentoring private practitioners to carry out clinical research with the view to improving patient care. In 2023, it was granted the status of Research Institute within the University.

It also created a site for public sector doctors to do their private work in a controlled and regulated environment and draw doctors from the private sector back into the Academic sector to make a positive contribution to the training of medical specialists and sub-specialists.
These dedicated practitioners are committed to ensuring the future of health care, training and research in South Africa – this reinforces the DGMC’s uniqueness.