This joint effort, in partnership with the Bertha Centre, Groote Schuur Hospital, the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences, and the Western Cape Government Department of Health, established the first public sector hospital innovation programme in South Africa.The aim of the Groote Schuur Innovation Programme was to support hospital staff in developing and implementing solutions to some of the hospital’s challenges, and through this, to grow a culture of innovation that would sustain past the initial funding.The programme was envisioned as giving staff the chance to think creatively, to develop the solutions they thought were needed, and to push the status quo within the Groote Schuur environment.

The Innovation Programme was based out of the GSH Innovation Hub, a physical space that allowed programme participants to interact with the Bertha Centre team as well as health innovators, entrepreneurs, students, clinicians, and practitioners across Cape Town, the Western Cape, and South Africa. The Innovation Hub acted as an event space as well as a creative working space, and was open to hospital staff, external expert partners, students and the broader health innovation community. A major function of the Hub was to act as a connector between frontline innovators and policy makers, consultants, and subject matter experts.