Hermanus Family Practice
What does your company do?
We are a multidisciplinary, child and family focused Medical practice with a seperate wing where I also practice Aesthetic medicine and primary care Dermatology.
We are two General practitioners, two psychologists and one Paediatrician.
The aim is to create a safe and welcoming space for families to be supported in all their stages of parenthood, for the women who are employed or renting to form part of a family that invests our available time into our patients but also rate their role at home quite high and thus we support one another with availability and off times.
What is your biggest success?
My biggest success is definitely saying that I love my job, where medicine in South Africa is treading on shaky grounds with plenty of doctors being either unemployed, burnt out or stuck in a worskplace they can not get out of but they don't have another choice out of the fear of having nothing else.
I can 100% say that I can fully be a mother and a doctor and be of worth in two areas, without them compromising one another and still supporting my family. I love that others can also love and enjoy the space in working here and in being patients.
This has also supported my husband's and my NGO Safe house, where our patients contributed so much to donating furniture, toys and clothes and we are able to extend our hand wider to the community.
What has been your biggest hurdle?
Being a team leader- as an introvert and people pleaser, hard conversations or being a head girl is not my thing at all and I would much rather work in secret than swing a sceptre.
The biggest hurdle however has also been the biggest victory, in learning that one can lead with softness, that relationships are placed before any minor issue and that we sort things out one on one.
I realised that value of policies that protect all and making time for frequent check ins with the team to streamline what works and what doesn't. With that said, it remains and ongoing hurdle!
