Hospice doctor wins achiever award

DOCTOR Sarah Fakroodeen has been recognised as a top business achiever.

Dr Fakroodeen, the medical director and doctor at the Highway Hospice, was selected as a top professional in The Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) Regional Business Achiever Awards (RBAA) recently. The awards recognise outstanding South African businesswomen for their valuable contribution to the South African economy.

Each year the BWA honours the many remarkable women whose achievements in business have served to elevate the true spirit of proudly South African within their local economy.

Dr Fakroodeen said she didn’t expect to win her category, but said it was an honour to get the award.

“I see it as a recognition of myself as a woman in leadership and Highway Hospice as a leader in palliative care,” she said.

Dr Fakroodeen is passionate about palliative care and has worked at Highway Hospice for more than 17 years.

She is a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and she holds a diploma in obstetrics and family planning.

She also did a short stint in neonatal paediatrics. She returned to South Africa in 1980 and worked as a GP. She then took a eight year break to have her son, and felt running a GP practice would be the best possible way to not be away from him too much.

“I saw an advert in the newspaper about a locum at Highway Hospice and as I’d worked in nucelar medicine for a short while in Ireland, I was interested. I did the locum and when the medical director returned, he was so impressed with my work and said I had a natural affinity for hospice work. He created a post for me as a part time doctor. This was the start of my career at Highway Hospice,” she said.

Dr Fakroodeen said she felt she needed a post graduate education and so she studied a diploma in palliative medicine through the University of Cardiff in Wales in 2000. When she returned, Greta Schoemann, the founder of Highway Hospice, motivated for her to get the medical director position. She got the job, and furthered her studies, doing a masters in palliative medicine through UCT.

Dr Fakroodeen is the chairperson of the Palliative Care Society of South Africa and has completed various publications and done numerous presentations at conferences.

“For this work, you need to understand the people and the needs of patients. We are dealing with a life threatening illness with a limited prognosis. Each person and their experience is unique and you learn something new every day. A lot of people ask me if I get depressed by the work, but I feel you need to be empathetic. Patients are facing death and are vulnerable and it is very rewarding to travel their journey with them. It is very rewarding to assist someone who is extremely vulnerable and to bring them comfort and relief,” she said.