Number of shootings shocks new specialist
WHAT happens at Livingstone Hospital is much worse than in Grey’s Anatomy, says new accident and emergency head Dr Roshen Maharaj, musing over the gunshot patients he sees daily.
Appointed to run the busy unit just three months ago, Maharaj still cannot believe the sheer number of gunshot victims he sees.
“I think I have seen more shooting injuries in three months than I did in five years in Durban,” he said.
Of popular TV show Grey’s Anatomy, the affable doctor says that is merely a “glorified story of what happens in an emergency unit”.
Maharaj is the first emergency medicine specialist appointed at Livingstone.
He specialised in emergency medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and is determined to cut patient waiting times.
“I have done an analysis of the unit and we have made our recommendations,” he said.
The biggest thing members of the public could do to assist the case flow at his unit was to use local clinics for non-life-threatening cases.
Maharaj, who moved to the Bay from Durban, said: “People in Port Elizabeth have been very helpful.”
Emergency medicine was introduced as a new speciality in the Western Cape and later in Johannesburg.
“It is an exciting field of medicine. You never know what will happen every day,” Maharaj said.
Maharaj completed his MB ChB degree at the University of the Witwatersrand before working in Durban and overseas and then doing his MMed (emergency medicine) at UCT.
Five years ago he started the emergency room at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban and had run it since then.
Livingstone saw between 2 000 and 3 000 emergency cases a month, he said.
Hospital chief executive Thulane Madonsela said he was delighted that Maharaj had joined his team.
“After we recruited him I would phone every month to make sure he was still coming.”
He said Maharaj’s appointment was part of his plan to complete Livingstone Hospital’s transition to a fully fledged hospital of specialists over the next three years.
“His appointment also strengthened the communication channels between specialists,” he said.
Madonsela said the Korsten Clinic was open every day from 7am to 7pm and had a doctor on duty every day.
“If you don’t have a life-threatening medical condition, go there.
“Don’t wait until [just after] seven, then come to the emergency room.”
He said training for emergency medical personnel in triaging – to identify which cases were serious and who could wait – would be strengthened.