Heroes of Groote Schuur, Anzio Road, Observatory, Cape Town (2026)

19/01/2026

“I have worked at Groote Schuur Hospital for 20 years. I began working in the Orthopaedic Unit, before moving to Trauma and Emergency. I deal with patients who have all types of injuries and issues, ranging from psychiatric conditions, gunshot and stab wounds, car accidents, broken bones and many other things.

My role is to interview them and help them get discharged. I often have to help locate their families, so that they have someone to assist them when they leave hospital. When a patient is ready to be discharged, but no one can take care of them at home, we'll send them to Step-Down Facilities.

If a patient has nowhere to return to, we will work with the Department of Social Development to place them in a homeless shelter. The shelter continues trying to locate the person’s family and help integrate them out of street life.

We also deal with patients who have experienced gender-based violence (GBV), which can be very challenging. Some patients might not want any intervention, because they are used to it, they deny they are being abused or blame themselves for causing certain behaviour. Other times, even if they do understand you, they will ask, ‘Who is going to feed me, or who will feed my children?’ It sometimes means you are fighting a losing battle.

The best thing to do when this happens is educate a patient about her rights. For example, you can advise them that they can get a protection order that will only result in action being taken if they are abused again.

Despite it sometimes being challenging, my job makes me happy. It is very rewarding to help patients return home and reunite with their families.

We recently had a case where a man came from Johannesburg to see his sister he hadn't seen in 20 years. But when he arrived here, he discovered she had sadly passed away. He was then robbed and had nowhere to go in Cape Town. Via the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust, I helped organise bus fare to get him back to Joburg.

If we had just left him here, he would’ve been homeless. So I was happy to send him back to a familiar place where has friends and family who can help him.” – Precious Kopane, Social Worker in the Trauma and Emergency Units.

07/01/2026

“I have worked at Groote Schuur Hospital for 15 years now. I came to Groote Schuur to do my community service, and I never left. I think I have been here longer than some of the furniture. If they didn’t give me a chance, I wouldn’t have noticed my own potential.

My work involves overseeing Schedule 5 and Schedule 6 substances such as morphine, pethidine, propofol,etc, which all need to be under the supervision of a pharmacist. I make sure the registers are balancing with what has been dispensed and what we have in stock.

The best part about working at Groote Schuur is the fact that people are very friendly and accommodating. I’d give all my colleagues an A-plus and my supervisors and managers are amazing. I also believe it depends on your personality. People adjust to how you behave, so if you are friendly, then you will receive that back.

My colleagues are very accommodating of my disabilities. I am hearing impaired and I have got mild cerebral palsy, which affects my legs and means I get tired very quickly. I have a hearing aid in one ear and a cochlear implant in the other ear and I don’t use any aids to walk. The way I am is a blessing from the Almighty.

My colleagues usually help me with telephonic queries and also if I get tired then they are usually very accommodating and let me have a turn to capture the prescriptions. When we capture prescriptions we usually sit down at the computer.

There are many rewarding parts about working at Groote Schuur, but I think the main one is that when you leave at the end of the day, you feel happy that you have helped so many people. Everyone who comes here needs our help to try to get better, so it feels like we are making a big difference in their lives.” – Hoomairah Moolla, Pharmacist in the E10 Pharmacy.

05/12/2025

“I started at Groote Schuur Hospital in 2017 as a medical officer in urology, after which I completed my specialist training and have been employed as a consultant since 2023.

Urology is such a small department. We are currently three consultants, but we cover Red Cross, Groote Schuur, New Somerset, and Eerste River, so it gets busy. Our scope of work covers everything from paediatrics, to robotic surgery, to open surgery, lasers, reconstruction, and so much more.

My favourite part about working at Groote Schuur is the patients, who are generally just fantastic, respectful people.

We are also very privileged working at Groote Schuur. We've got access to almost anything that a patient would need. We've got the robot now, so the surgeries we're doing on the prostate are getting less invasive. Whenever we need something which is going to benefit patients, the hospital is very supportive.

Another thing is that everyone at Groote Schuur takes pride in their work, no matter what they do. There is an incredible work ethic, which is fantastic, and I don’t think I’ve really seen it elsewhere.

Self detection for prostate cancer is extremely important in South Africa, because in places like the USA and Europe, they've been able to roll out routine screening in the form of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood tests for men from age 45. We don't have resources to give every person a blood test.

But we do know there are certain risk factors, so we try to raise awareness around those. Some risk factors include:

1. If you have had a first degree relative die at a young age from prostate cancer. By first degree relative, we mean a father, brother, or uncle.

2. Another one that people are less aware of is breast cancer is a certain gene called the BRCA gene. So if you've got a mom or a sister with a BRCA gene related to breast cancer, you are more prone to more aggressive prostate cancer.

3. Finally, things like age and ethnicity, as prostate cancer is more common in people of colour in South Africa.

If you've got any of those things, we advise that you try to get a PSA. Prostate cancer is avoidable and treatable, but it's not picked up in everyone. I think our detection rate has gone up, but the earlier you detect it, the better and that there are many options to treat it.

Even if you do pick up prostate cancer, for instance, not all prostate cancer needs to be treated immediately. The reality is that any treatment you get for prostate cancer can influence things like your continence. So if we pick up a non-aggressive form of prostate cancer, we will just monitor it closely, and allow the patient to carry on living their normal life without any treatment.

We have started an initiative called Project Peacock. It's a fund where we're able to fund surgery lists on a Friday by paying for extra staff.

We don’t only treat cancer on those lists, but we also work on our backup list for kidney stones. We've lost so much theatre time through factors out of our own control, and I always say that the demand outweighs the supply. We see 30, 40 new patients with stones a week, and we have two theatre lists per week, where we can do six or seven patients, so we don't have enough theatre time to accommodate the number of people we are seeing.

We are always willing to operate. We'll operate on a Saturday or Sunday pro bono. It doesn't bother us, but we just want to get as many people as possible in the operating theatre.” – Dr Cleve Oppel, Consultant in the Urology Department.

27/11/2025

We speak to Dineo Ntshabeleng and Nombali Mchunu, two nurses who work on the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust’s Gender-Based Violence screening Project, which aims to identify and support patients who might be victims of GBV.

Dineo: “This is the third year that we’ve worked on the project. We go into the wards and we screen female patients – this involves us giving them questionnaires that ask them whether they are safe at home or have experience any violence. Then we have a social worker who will help them further if they need it.”

Nombali: “We have specific sites that we go to every morning, including maternity, the gynae wards, the trauma ward in Emergency – but the doctors from other areas also refer patients who are experiencing violence if they come across them. Some patients come in for a leg injury, for example, and when you start talking to them, they open up.”

Dineo: “When we approach the female patients, we have six questions that we ask them. The questions all concern their safety at home. If they say yes to any of the questions, then we contact the social worker, who then continues working with the patient.”

Nombali :“I enjoy the fact that people are able to open up to me and talk about issues that they sometimes haven’t shared with anyone. I feel very honoured that someone can trust me with information that is so sensitive.”

Dineo: “For me, it's being able to learn more about GBV and being able to be there for someone. For many women it’s the first time they’ve spoken to someone about it and they’re often nervous to admit that there is an issue.”

Nombali: “I’ve definitely grown in this job. At first I didn’t know about the intensity of GBV, and the situations women go through, and the fact that GBV comes in different forms. Now I understand it more deeply and am able to give patients more advice.
Because it’s not just physical abuse. There's also psychological abuse, emotional abuse, and financial abuse – it comes in many forms.”

Dineo: “Initially I didn't understand why some woman stayed, but now I are more aware about why some people stay if they are experiencing violence. Often the husband is the breadwinner, and if you leave, where are you going to go, or who is going to support you and your children? Now I am less judgmental because there's a lot more that I understand.”

Picture: Nombali Mchunu (left) and Dineo Ntshabeleng (right)

21/11/2025

Staff members from Groote Schuur Hospital joined their sisters across the country in wearing black and taking part in the 15-minute standstill at 12pm today as a way of bringing national attention to the country's high levels of gender-based violence. It's a personal issue for staff at the hospital, who are all-too familiar with assisting patients who have been victims of gender-based violence.

But the hospital is not taking the problem lying down – next week we'll be talking to two nurses who assist with the Groote Schuur Hospital Trust GBV screening intervention.

17/11/2025

To mark World Prematurity Day, we speak to Ameerah Albertus, a dietitian who works in Groote Schuur Hospital’s Neonatal ICU.

“I'm a clinical dietician and my passion is neonatology. I'll screen babies every day, especially in the ICUs, to see if they are at risk of losing too much weight and I’ll adjust their feeding to prevent weight loss.

The difference a neonatal dietician can make for a baby is huge. If you as the dietician can start seeing a baby from the get-go, you can prevent their growth faltering or plateauing and ensure that the baby thrives while in the unit, which will then reduce the length of stay in the hospital so the baby can go home sooner.

Promoting the use of breast milk is a big part of what I do.

We always want to give our babies their own mom’s milk, but because we see a lot of high-risk mummies who might have had to have a C-section it can take up to three days for the mom's own milk to come in. In that case we would use donated milk. We have a donor milk bank in our unit, which is just for our babies.

We have a protocol in the unit – for all babies born less than 500 grams, we provide them with five days of donated breast milk. But if the mom is able to provide her own milk then we will give the mom's own milk. The first milk that comes out – colostrum – is considered the first immunisation for the baby and is especially important so we always promote that.

Normally the doctors would go to the mom and would talk to her about the importance of expressing. And when the mom does come down to see the baby for the first time in the unit, we hope that she brings us a few mls of her breast milk.

There are moms who come from far away and have to leave their babies. There’s financial strain and also social strain. It’s very hard for them. But we always encourage the mom to try and breastfeed, even if it’s 2mls or 5mls, because it makes a huge difference.

Sometimes there are moms that have an abundant supply of milk, that can be used for other babies. The nurses and I will speak to these moms and inform them that we have a donor milk bank and ask whether she’s willing for her milk to be used. I’ll also explain that we don’t just take the milk and give directly to other babies – it goes through a pasteurisation process and from there samples are sent to the lab for testing. Then the milk is frozen and can be kept for up to six months. And of course we always make sure that her own baby has enough first.

One of the things I find most fulfilling is seeing babies who have stayed here for three or four months finally going home with their mom. I had a baby that was discharged two weeks ago. When he was born at 24 weeks, he was 730 grams. He lost 24% of his birth weight, so his weight went down to 530 grams.

Most of these babies sadly don’t make it, but he did and was eventually discharged. That was a success story. He was 1,8kg when he left.

It’s just so rewarding being able to send a healthy baby home.”

29/10/2025

“I wrote an essay for my Grade 7 exam on the subject, ‘What I want to be one day’. I said that I wanted to be a nurse - I got good marks for it, and I was very chuffed. It’s amazing that life took me on that same pathway.

I started in 1990 as a nursing assistant. Then I worked for 26 years, but as I did I sort of climbed the ladder – I did my bridging course for an enrolled nurse and then became a staff nurse and then did a bridging course to become a registered nurse. Then after that I went to study opthalmology, so I am an opthalmic trained nurse specialising in that.

Then I became clinical facilitator In outpatients and after a short stint at Tygerberg Hospital I came back to Outpatients in this position. I basically manage all the clinics in Outpatients, and the nursing staff report to me, so it’s quite a big role.

From 0 to 10, my stress level is about eight on a day, but it is a rewarding type of stress because your fight is for the patients. I make sure I'm first and last to leave here. I’m not sure my husband always likes it, but it’s important to me.

Recently I spoke to the team and said that the little compliments we receive are so rewarding - just the fact that the patient appreciated what you've done and even more so if they remember your name. We always need to work towards making sure the patient is happy with whatever care they received. Sometimes there are factors like waiting time that are out of our control, but if we can at least give a smile or greet someone nicely and make sure they are comfortable, then you’re at least halfway to making someone happy.

And so I encourage my staff to have a morning talk with their patients in the clinics. It’s something I used to do. Every morning, my patients would get a talk. They would know my name, I would crack a joke and I would make sure that they knew where they needed to go. I believed that the most important person was the person who left last - I would sit and explain why they were leaving last. It’s all about effective communication.

If somebody leaves this hospital, or their clinic, or the outpatients, they need to know that they have been helped even if their condition might not go away, and that they’ve been given the service that they deserve.

Groote Schuur has given me a lot of opportunity - there’s been growth and opportunity and support over the years. I take pride in those who have gone before me, and were my mentors. And I sincerely hope that I am passing on some lessons to younger members of staff. But then I also learn from them on a daily basis - as a leader, I’ve learned that you don’t know it all!” - Mrs Sharon Serelina, Assistant Director, Nursing

16/10/2025

We speak to Nazlea Behardien Peters, Assistant Director of Radiology, who will be taking part in the 10km Peace Run on Saturday with colleagues from her department. They will join a group of 41 Groote Schuur staff members taking part in the various events on the Cape Town Marathon weekend to raise funds for Groote Schuur’s new Emergency Centre.

“At the moment the X-ray department works from two spaces, but when the new Emergency Centre is launched we’ll be working from a combined space right in the centre of the new area. We’re so excited to have a brand spanking-new department, but we also know that funding for this new space and the equipment that is required is a bit of a challenge.

So I thought I’d do a run just for fun and to help raise some money for the Emergency Unit as my personal contribution. But let's just make it clear - I’m ‘wunning’ on Saturday - walk running.

A few of the other people I work with here were keen to join so now we’re doing the 10km on Saturday together. Most of us are just social walkers. We like a party, so we’re seeing it as another type of party!

We’ve created a Give and Gain page, and we’ve been asking friends and family to support us, and slowly but surely some money has been trickling in. We know that we won’t be able to raise enough for the equipment that our department needs, because it is so expensive, but we thought that every bit raised towards the Emergency Centre would add to the pot and help.

I’m very proud to be part of this state hospital. Having a new department in the Emergency Centre is going to be amazing for our patients - being able to help them as soon as we can means that their recovery and rehabilitation is also going to be quicker.

I don’t think any of us are in this work for the accolades - we’re in it for what we can achieve for each person we happen to meet on our journey. We’re all a cog in this big wheel, all playing our part. So it's a massive multidisciplinary team that manages that one patient on their journey from the time they enter the institution until they are recovered and walk out of here.

We try and do the best we can, but we do need equipment to make it work even better, and hopefully our small contribution will play a role in making it happen.

Look out for us in our Groote Schuur Hospital Trust T-shirts!”

To donate:
https://www.givengain.com/campaign/run-for-gsh-trust-at-the-sanlam-cape-town-marathon-2025

13/10/2025

"I work at the breast clinic, and I also do the tele-meds - that involves me setting up the files for the patients who are phoned with the results for their mammograms, ultrasounds and biopsies. I will prepare the folders for the doctors, which will include the results. During the week, two or three doctors will come and call the patients.

The breast clinic takes place on Wednesdays and Fridays. We see around about 60 to 80 patients every clinic.

Our patients are referred here via an online process from GPs or the day hospitals. When the doctor does the referral online, the system automatically gives a date and that patient can come to the clinic.

Patients will come from the reception area downstairs, we will attend to them and put them in the rooms where doctors are situated. The doctor will first see and examine the patients, and then they will decide whether they need an ultrasound or a mammogram. The patients come back to us, and we give them follow up appointments - they will either come back to the breast clinic or get an appointment for a mammogram and ultrasound.

The results take a few weeks to come through. If the results show that there needs to be further investigation, the patient will be phoned by the doctor, and then they will come back to the breast clinic. They won’t be given results over the phone, but when they come into the clinic on a Friday, they will see the oncologist who will give them the results and will talk to them about their treatment plan.

We used to be a walk-in breast clinic on a Friday. But since COVID started, we had to reduce the amount of patients we could see, and the online calendar system was introduced. The new system works better, and so does the telephone clinic, which was introduced in 2020. People used to come into the hospital just for results, and sit waiting for a whole day - and sometimes the results wouldn’t even be available. So the teleplone clinic is much more efficient.

The rest of the patients will get a follow-up appointment for a mammogram or ultrasound in one or two years time. Some patients are discharged if everything is normal.

I like my job. I initially started as a volunteer, but became permanent in 2018. I find my work interesting, because you’re always learning. You become more familiar with the words and the concepts that are related to the work that is done here. And I actually graduated in May after studying a degree public administration so I’m hoping to use that in my future." - Rugayah Abrahams Le Roux, Administration Clerk

25/09/2025

We spoke to Kim Cornelius, a pharmacist at the L-Block Pharmacy, which sits in the Radiation Oncology Unit, about the recently completed renovations to the facility.

“I have been at Groote Schuur for five years. I started here as a community service pharmacist in 2020. Prior to that I was an intern at a private hospital.

I dispense medication to oncology patients who are receiving chemotherapy or radiation. The medication is take-home medication to help ease the symptoms they
experience and get them through the treatment.

My time at GS has been good so far and I have definitely learnt a lot. Being here and helping patients has been a rewarding and fruitful experience. As GS is a tertiary hospital, one gets to see and do a lot more than you might elsewhere, which
has given me many opportunities for growth.

What I enjoy about working at L-Block Pharmacy is that you get to see the patients regularly. They usually come for their chemotherapy every three weeks, some come weekly. Over time, this allows us to build relationships with them and become part of their journey, supporting them in small but important ways.

The L-Block Pharmacy was recently renovated, which has been a big help. Thespace used was outdated, smaller and lacked proper systems for a safe sterile working environment.

With the upgrades the pharmacy is larger, better equipped and allows us to keep more stock on hand. It is a more pleasant place to work in and allows us to deliver better quality care.

The renovations also included the area where the patients receive their chemo treatment. The area used to be quite small and uncomfortable for the patients. Thanks to the renovations, the room is now more spacious, bright and comfortable.
Chemotherapy is never easy, but a pleasant environment helps.

We only moved in a few weeks ago so we’re still settling in and trying to make it a home. We are fully functioning and dispensing medication to our patients.”

18/09/2025

As part of our Pharmacy Month focus, we spoke to Tasneem Asmall, a production pharmacist in the inpatients pharmacy, about the new staff tea room mural she recently painted at the outpatients pharmacy.

“I have been at Groote Schuur Hospital for 11 years. I came here straight out of my community service placement in 2014.

I enjoy working at GS for a number of reasons. I have some really good colleagues that make the working environment a lot more comfortable and a nice place to work in. I'm grateful for the good colleagues I work with and a lot of them have become really amazing friends.

I also really enjoy helping people and I know that this is one of the places that we can actually make a difference. It is challenging because there is a high volume of patients coming to the pharmacies. But we have a team that's all on the same page about wanting to help patients, putting the patients first and working together to make things better, not only for the patients, but also for us.

I used to work at the outpatients pharmacy, but was recently rotated to the inpatient pharmacy. It is very busy from the time we get there until home time. But it's good to be doing something that has such a positive impact on people's lives.

I think the pharmacy team often feels like we are overlooked because all the nice wellness things happen during our peak periods. So we’ve been looking at trying to incorporate wellness for pharmacy, by doing what we can during our quiet times of the day. Towards the end of last year, we said that our tea room needed a revamp. The windows were a little bit dirty and the walls needed to be cleaned and painted, so we decided to ask if it would be possible for us to do a mural.

I really enjoy painting and I actually run some art classes as a side hustle to help people. So that's why I thought it would be such a nice idea to do a cool mural and just make the tea room a more fun and lively space to walk into. We wanted to give people coming for tea and lunch something small to make them smile, whilst still having something related to pharmacy.

They asked me if I would be interested in helping with the project, which I did. It was really such a pleasure to work on it and I'm grateful that I got to do something nice for the team because they deserve nice things.

I got some help from some of my colleagues. A lot of people came to help when we were painting the blank wall. I had to do the details mainly by myself, but the first part of the project was a group effort.

We just wanted it to be a nice space to feel comfortable and where people can take their tea time and their lunchtime in a clean environment that brightens your day a little bit.”

12/09/2025

September is Pharmacy Month. We speak to pharmacy assistants Endie Teyise, Banele Ndyenga and Lionel Clarence about the new medicine lockers at the hospital.

Endie Teyise: “The idea for the lockers started because we didn’t want our patients to wait for a long time at the pharmacy for their medication. Many of them have previously had to spend a lot of time queuing. Often people are forced to miss work because have to spend a few hours queuing for their medication. Some patients also come from far away. So it costs our patients in terms of time and also money.”

Lionel Clarence “The locker system is being used in a few other places, like the District Six Hospital. We went to see them there, and then the lockers were installed here in March this year.”

Banele Ndyenga: “Now, two days before our patients come for their repeat medication, we update their folders and we prepare their medicine and we place it in the locker. The patient then gets an sms with a pin, and they are able to come and collect their medication within three days. So now the patients can come and collect their medicine when it’s convenient for them. They can even come on the weekend. They can also send someone else to collect it for them if that works better for them.

Lionel Clarence: “For example, there is a patient who is blind. She used to be dropped by a driver and then wait hours for her medication, and then would call the driver to collect her when she was ready. Now the driver just comes past the hospital to collect her medication for her."

Banele Ndyenga: “It also helps with the staff from Groote Schuur who would come and collect medication. Before they used to come to the pharmacy around 2pm and there would be a bit of a backlog, but now they can also collect from the lockers. And they don’t have to leave their stations for a long time either. They can come after work.”

Endie Teyise: “Because of this system, the backlog and waiting times in the pharmacy has really decreased. We like the system because it has made things more efficient and reduced the waiting times in pharmacy, but the feedback we’re getting from patients is that they also really prefer this system.”

Heroes of Groote Schuur

19/01/2026

07/01/2026

05/12/2025

27/11/2025

21/11/2025

17/11/2025

29/10/2025

16/10/2025

13/10/2025

25/09/2025

18/09/2025

12/09/2025

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Heroes of Groote Schuur