5 January 2022

PatchSA has changed its name. It’s a small change but the meaning behind it is everything!

The South African Children’s Palliative Care Network (SACPCN) was officially launched at the 25th Anniversary conference of the Hospice palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA) in September of 2012. A year later, after consultation with a branding and marketing firm, the network’s new name, Palliative Treatment for Children in South Africa, with the acronym PatchSA, was officially presented on the 18th of September 2013 to the palliative care community at the joint HPCA and African Palliative Care Association (APCA) conference in Johannesburg along with our new logo.

While this name has served us well, especially as it is one that is easy to remember, it was always felt that the word ‘Treatment’ did not accurately represent the work of hospices and those working with children who had palliative needs. Palliative care is more than just ‘treatment’ and is rather a philosophy of care that is holistic in nature. A unanimously carried proposal made at the Annual General Meeting of PatchSA on 8 June 2021 was to replace this word with ‘Care’ and thereby change the name of the organisation to Palliative Care for Children South Africa.

Non Profit Company 

The timing of this name change coincided with the decision for PatchSA to become a Non Profit Company (NPC) and to register with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). On 5 November 2021, PatchSA officially became a Non Profit Company registered with the CIPC as:
PALLIATIVE CARE FOR CHILDREN SOUTH AFRICA

Speaking about the name change, Dr Michelle Meiring, PatchSA Chair says, “Our organisation has a pivotal role to play in the development of services providing palliative care to at least one million babies, children and adolescents in South Africa. We felt that it was the right time to make this small but meaningful change in our name in order to more accurately portray the nature of the work done by our members and all those who support and care for children with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses and their families in South Africa. We are encouraged by the progress we have made as an organisation since our inception in 2012 and look forward to becoming even more well-known and recognised as the voice for children needing palliative care and their families going forward.”

We plan to keep our branding exactly the same (apart from the name written on our logos) and will still be known by the acronym PatchSA.