Rural allowance: Yes
Doctor’s quarters:
Bachelor flats, poorly maintained but very affordable and convenient. Private accommodation tends to be very expensive in town.
Flat is composed of a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen area. None of the stove tops work so you will have to buy your own. The bathroom has a shower, toilet and wash basin.
All flats come with a bed and built in cupboards. You might get lucky and find the previous residents left some things (e.g. bedside tables, refrigerators, microwaves).
The quarters are on the same grid as the hospital so are rarely affected by loadshedding, however the transformer feeding the hospital is old and often breaks down so you might occasionally be without power for a few hours up to two days.
The water in town is not fit for consumption but fine for washing and bathing, luckily many small businesses in town sell water for very good prices.
Academics:
The hospital unfortunately has a very high staff turnover rate so academics honestly depend on the current doctors working in each department. Paeds, family medicine, and anaesthesia have good academic programmes.
The hospital has a once weekly academic meeting for all doctors, however only one meeting a month is actually used for academics, the rest are HR stuff, quality assurance etc.
I strongly encourage self-study and then asking the MOs about things you are uncertain about - if they see you are making an effort they will teach you.
The hospital is also currently in the process of setting up an academic programme for the new NWU medical school so hopefully academics improve as time goes on.
Supervision:
Can be poor at times so learn as much as you can when you have the opportunity.
Clinical exposure:
You will encounter and become comfortable with the “bread and butter” cases of each department. Your management of diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, common pregnancy issues, and trauma will be superb, however if you are hoping for weird and tough cases you are out of luck as these are referred to bigger hospitals.
Social scene:
A nightmare for individuals used to going out often. All the normal restaurants are present as well as a small mall and several bars. No movie house, no parks, no botanical gardens, zoos, fun runs etc.
Additional notes:
- All calls in first year and casualty/CHC/OPD portion of family medicine are done in casualty and you will assist in any emergency theatre cases irrespective of the block you are in.
- 2 months of second year will be spent at a level 1 hospital in the district - so you will move into that hospital’s doctors quarters.
- 4 months will be spent at Mahikeng hospital for ortho and psych, requiring another move.
- 2 months will be spent at the local CHC - about 5 min drive from the hospital.
- They are very lenient with sick leave and choosing your leave dates, and strict about interns having post call - all things you often don’t get at bigger hospitals. The workload is tolerable.
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