A shortage of beds in intensive care units in state hospitals delays life-saving operations for infants with heart defects. The Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital, which opens next year in Parktown, Johannesburg, aims to change that, according to paediatrician Keith Bolton.The 250-bed hospital will have 50 ICU beds for youngsters - half for children and half for babies.The opening of the hospital meant that waiting lists for poor children with heart defects would drop, said Bolton.Group Five operations manager Nick Everts said yesterday that construction was on track for the hospital to be completed by the end of the year.For the past seven years Bolton and the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund have been the driving forces behind the hospital.Bolton, 69, who is retired, spends his afternoons raising money, recruiting medical specialists for the hospital - a non-profit private operation that will be administrated by Medi-Clinic - and answering calls from builders."The hospital will predominantly serve the indigent poor. People said it would never work, but I am a born optimist," the professor said.Fundraising has taken years longer than Bolton expected, but following the late president's death, about R320-million was donated. Administrators now had R610-million of the R1-billion needed.The Health Department and national Treasury have agreed to cover most of the annual running costs and it is expected that about 25% of the patients will be private payers.The hospital aims to employ specialists who are not available in Gauteng, such as a paediatric neurosurgeon who will be trained overseas later this year.There are only three paediatric neurosurgeons in the country currently and they are all at the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town.This means children in Gauteng either have to travel to Cape Town or be operated on by neurosurgeons specialised in adults...