“I believe you have to heal the soul before you can heal the body.”
These are the passionate words of Dr Tweedy Keokgale (30), a medical officer at the Bertha Gxowa Hospital.
Keokgale was recently honoured at the Khanyisa Service Excellence Awards when he received the prestigious Special Recognition Premier Award.
This award is given to the Gauteng health care worker who has not only shown hard work and commitment in the field but who has gone the extra mile to improve patient management and care.
This young man’s journey started in Serowe, a town in Botswana, where he began to pursue his passion in medicine at the University of Botswana.
He later moved to South Africa and continued his studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
“I did my internship in the Thelle Mogoerane Hospital and then proceeded to do my community service here at the Bertha Gxowa Hospital, where I’m now a medical officer,” he explained.
“This is home, and I plan to stay here as long as they’ll have me.”
Keokgale stated that he truly discovered his passion for his work at Bertha Gxowa because he was given the opportunity to grow.
“The hospital gives me the opportunity to learn from others and to consult on the best care for patients,” he said.
“There is also accountability at the hospital, meaning you work to the best of your ability.”
When he first found out he had been nominated for the Khanyisa Service Excellence Awards he had a lot of questions.
“I wondered what the awards were, who I was nominated against, what category I was nominated in, if I stood a chance of winning and most importantly was my wife invited to the event?” he said.
Keokgale and his wife Katlego, whom he gushes is his number one supporter, attended the awards and sat through the evening wondering if his name would ever be called.
“My category was the second last of the evening, unbeknown to me, and to hear my name was a complete surprise.
“After giving my wife a hug and a kiss I walked up on stage, completely overwhelmed to receive the award,” he said.
Keokgale said it was an extraordinary honour to be recognised by his CEO, his peers and the MEC and Premier.
When asked what he felt had won him the award, Keokgale said, “What I have seen to be very important in my practice of medicine is to show respect and dignity to each and every patient.
“I have found speaking their mother tongue goes a long way as well, or even just smiling at them and introducing yourself nicely.
“I would like to think I’ve excelled in my work and won awards because I make my work my passion and favourite hobby.”
He discovered this way of thinking when one of his professors told him, after listening to him complain about the weekend ward rounds that “to excel in your work, make it your hobby and be passionate about it”.
“Since that day I’ve enjoyed practising medicine, which has lead to lower mortality and morbidity and shorter hospital stays in the step-down ward.
“I believe this is because I got more involved in patient management, knew my patients in detail, showed interest in each and every case and never disregarded any of them,” he said.
When Keokgale isn’t at the hospital he is a busy dad to his daughter Alexis Entle (2) and enjoys playing tennis, reading, especially history books and learning new languages.
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