Rural Allowance: No
Doctors Quarters:
- No comments yet.
Academics:
- Weekly morbidity and mortality meetings with the entire hospital staff, with a teaching academic presentation of a different topic each week. At least one consultant in every department. Some departments like O&G also have their own weekly academic presentations.
Supervision:
- Consultants available for advice 24/7 in all departments. You have freedom to manage patients independently but can always reach out when you need help. Most departments have consultant ward rounds at least once a week.
Clinical Exposure:
- The hospital sees a wide range of pathologies and cases from the very mild to the very severe. A lot of patients come in undifferentiated. No access to on-site specialized radiology but sonars and CT scans etc are done at Bara and reports can be accessed from Bheki Mlangeni. No sub-speciality cases as this is a district hospital.
Departments worked in:
- Internal Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Emergency Department, OPD’s -
"1. Obstetrics and gynaecology: spent 6 months here. You are encouraged but not forced to cut Caesarian sections. You will run labour ward, antenatal ward, gynae ward or assist/be assisted in theatre, or see patients in the mixed antenatal and gynae OPD. Consultant advice is available 24/7 and high risk cases are referred to Bara as appropriate. Calls are done in obstetrics and gynaecology only, with 24 hour weekday calls and 8 hour weekend covers. There is always a more senior MO with you on call. The department has weekly academic presentations and daily handover meetings where teaching is done. The department is very busy for a district hospital, running at the same numbers as most large regional hospitals, but is well staffed currently.
- Internal medicine: you are allocated 12-16 beds in a specific ward and will be in charge of the management of those patients. Consultant or senior MO advice is available 24/7. You get a lot of independence but assistance is there if needed. Consultant rounds usually once or twice per week. Each ward has its own day for MOPD once per week. Calls are 24+ hour weekday calls, where you are in casualty from 16h00. In casualty, you see a mix of all kinds of patients, including medical, paediatrics, surgical, gynae, trauma etc. On the weekdays, post call is only given after you have completed your ward rounds and ward work for your respective patients in your ward. Weekend calls are 8-12 hour shifts in casualty. When on call, one medical officer or CSMO on call, in addition to working in casualty, willl also be responsible for covering all the non-O&G wards including medical, surgical and paeds wards, as well as any neonatal resuscitations in theatre and labour ward. "
Social Scene:
- It is a relatively small facility, and most clinical staff attend weekly M&M meetings. Almost all the doctors do calls in casualty. So you get to know everyone and the environment is quite familial.
Additional Comments:
- Excellent exposure, with great supervision and opportunity for independence. Very fair working hours (8am-4pm maximum) and capped overtime of 80hours per month. Note that due to the low number of CSMOs, limited departments are offered for community service. Usually the emergency department and O&G take first preference, but you may get the opportunity to rotate through internal medicine or surgery (or less likely paediatrics or psychiatry).
Please contribute to this conversation by replying to this topic.