Cape Town - The Western Cape Health Department gave an official welcome to a sprightly and eager group of medical, community service and administration interns on Wednesday.
The new intake of interns were welcomed by Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH), where 65 of the 313 first-year interns for 2022 will be stationed.
About 300 second-year interns will be returning from the 2021 intake.
GSH intern representative Sheldon Moss started his internship in January last year.
“I was on call the very first day of January which was very nerve-racking at the time. This wasn’t an easy task. We obviously started in the middle of the second wave of Covid-19,” he said.
When they started their internship they were quite excited and it was unfortunate they had to work with health workers who had suffered burn out during the Covid-19 first wave he said.
“It was quite difficult but the reason why I’m mentioning this is because despite that the seniors that we then worked with were extremely helpful and provided enough and good emotional work support despite going through all this.
“It was also a huge benefit being in a facility like this. Another benefit of being here which I’ve noticed is learning from the best in their fields. Some of the greatest minds in medicine in South Africa ply their trade at Groote Schuur,” Moss said.
GSH CEO Bhavna Patel said interns started on January 1. Community service nurses started their internship this week. The interns will work in various departments at the hospital she said.
Addressing the group, Patel said: “As interns starting off their professional life at GSH, we’d like to ensure that we play a positive part in that and we’ve put a lot of systems in place for our interns and our community service.
“It’s important for you to realise that you are not just interns, you are staff members of this hospital and you are as important to us as all of our staff are.”
Mbombo stressed the importance of taking care of oneself first to ensure optimum care was given to patients.
“I would like to welcome these junior doctors, community service practitioners and administrators into the health system of the Western Cape.
“These interns are from across the country and have been placed in our system to help them gain the necessary skills that will enable them to add value to the health system,” Mbombo said.