Two extraordinary doctors were honoured as local heroes on Friday. The South African Medical Association’s (Sama) Border Coastal Branch used its AGM at the East London Golf Club to launch a new local hero award tradition.
Dr Mervyn Griffiths and Dr Jenny Nash received the coveted trophies.
Griffiths’ passion for medicine came from growing up the child of a missionary father who worked as a Methodist minister at a mission hospital in Thaba Nchu.
Griffiths started his career as the sole doctor at the same 150-bed mission hospital.
He later opened his own practice as a general practitioner before moving to Cape Town to specialise in internal medicine in 1985 after completing his time with the Fellowship of the College of Physicians.
In 1989, he relocated to East London and has worked as the head of the Frere Hospital kidney unit. Today he works part-time at the unit and part-time in private practice.
The father of four, who delivered two of his own children, would occasionally donate a pint of his own blood before operating on a patient.
Griffiths said of the award: “It’s a great honour. I dedicate it to all the people who’ve donated kidneys.”
Nash graduated from the University of Cape Town’s medical school in 1996. She has postgraduate specialisations in HIV management and family medicine.
She spent the first decade of her career at Mseleni Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal in charge of the maternity and neonatal unit. She helped co-ordinate the first district-based anti-retroviral programme there.
When she moved to the Eastern Cape she was made responsible for five primary healthcare clinics from Kei Mouth to Stutterheim, where she put more than 1300 people on ARVs. Nash was described as an advocate for patient’s rights and quality service, as well as an educator when it came to her staff.
She has served on the executive committee of the Rural Doctor’s Association of South Africa and was elected Doctor of the Year in 2013.
The philanthropist also serves on the board of a local orphanage, brings medical assistance to communities at no fee and also acts as the doctor in her children’s school when the need arises. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Health workers urged to blow the whistle
Doctors have been reminded that their first duty is to their patients, not their employers.
Section 27’s Mark Heywood was addressing about 80 members at the annual general meeting of the Border region of the SA Medical Association on Friday. He said health professionals had a right and duty to speak out about conditions in the healthcare system.
In an interview, he said: “Speaking out is not against the law. In fact, speaking out is a legal duty. The first responsibility of doctors in the healthcare system is to their patients, not to the Eastern Cape health department or anybody else. They have to advance the best interests of their patients.”
He said sometimes health professionals failed because of a lack or resources and bad infrastructure. Still, their duty was to speak out because healthcare was a constitutional right.
“Many people in this province feel like the health system is getting worse. They go to the hospital and there are no doctors. They go the clinic and there’s no medication and no basic equipment.
“So how do we bridge this difference between the right and the reality? The duty is , the healthcare worker, to find a way to cross that bridge, to improve the quality of healthcare for people,” said Heywood.
Health workers could join the Treatment Action Campaign and Sama, whose interests were not limited to doctors and health workers, but included the healthcare system. “It’s that fear that we need to overcome,” he said, referring to healthcare workers’ reluctance to speak to the media.
It was “completely unlawful” for the health department to intimidate workers who raise issues internally. Most of the problems in the public sector were related to mismanagement and corruption. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Doctors honoured as local heroes
Dr Mervyn Griffiths and Dr Jenny Nash received the coveted trophies.
Griffiths’ passion for medicine came from growing up the child of a missionary father who worked as a Methodist minister at a mission hospital in Thaba Nchu.
Griffiths started his career as the sole doctor at the same 150-bed mission hospital.
He later opened his own practice as a general practitioner before moving to Cape Town to specialise in internal medicine in 1985 after completing his time with the Fellowship of the College of Physicians.
In 1989, he relocated to East London and has worked as the head of the Frere Hospital kidney unit. Today he works part-time at the unit and part-time in private practice.
The father of four, who delivered two of his own children, would occasionally donate a pint of his own blood before operating on a patient.
Griffiths said of the award: “It’s a great honour. I dedicate it to all the people who’ve donated kidneys.”
Nash graduated from the University of Cape Town’s medical school in 1996. She has postgraduate specialisations in HIV management and family medicine.
She spent the first decade of her career at Mseleni Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal in charge of the maternity and neonatal unit. She helped co-ordinate the first district-based anti-retroviral programme there.
When she moved to the Eastern Cape she was made responsible for five primary healthcare clinics from Kei Mouth to Stutterheim, where she put more than 1300 people on ARVs. Nash was described as an advocate for patient’s rights and quality service, as well as an educator when it came to her staff.
She has served on the executive committee of the Rural Doctor’s Association of South Africa and was elected Doctor of the Year in 2013.
The philanthropist also serves on the board of a local orphanage, brings medical assistance to communities at no fee and also acts as the doctor in her children’s school when the need arises. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Health workers urged to blow the whistle
Doctors have been reminded that their first duty is to their patients, not their employers.
Section 27’s Mark Heywood was addressing about 80 members at the annual general meeting of the Border region of the SA Medical Association on Friday. He said health professionals had a right and duty to speak out about conditions in the healthcare system.
In an interview, he said: “Speaking out is not against the law. In fact, speaking out is a legal duty. The first responsibility of doctors in the healthcare system is to their patients, not to the Eastern Cape health department or anybody else. They have to advance the best interests of their patients.”
He said sometimes health professionals failed because of a lack or resources and bad infrastructure. Still, their duty was to speak out because healthcare was a constitutional right.
“Many people in this province feel like the health system is getting worse. They go to the hospital and there are no doctors. They go the clinic and there’s no medication and no basic equipment.
“So how do we bridge this difference between the right and the reality? The duty is , the healthcare worker, to find a way to cross that bridge, to improve the quality of healthcare for people,” said Heywood.
Health workers could join the Treatment Action Campaign and Sama, whose interests were not limited to doctors and health workers, but included the healthcare system. “It’s that fear that we need to overcome,” he said, referring to healthcare workers’ reluctance to speak to the media.
It was “completely unlawful” for the health department to intimidate workers who raise issues internally. Most of the problems in the public sector were related to mismanagement and corruption. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
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