SA’S CANCER STORY (PART 5): Why the Northern Cape’s only state cancer paediatrician left for the private sector
Dr Liezl du Plessis tells Biénne Huisman about the public sector paediatric oncology unit she established in Kimberley, and how a broken system forced her to abandon this dream. She now pursues her passion treating children and teenagers in Pretoria’s private sector.
Dr Liezl du Plessis, the former paediatric oncologist from the Northern Cape, left her position at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberley after eight years due to exhaustion and accumulated trauma. She now practices in the private sector in Pretoria. Du Plessis established the only paediatric oncology unit in Kimberley in 2018, but found the broken system and lack of support challenging.
She describes the hospital's maintenance as disrepair, with only a few people left in the maintenance workshop by the time she left. Many of the patients she treated were from poor socioeconomic backgrounds, and some were exposed to poor living conditions that ultimately led to their care being addressed.
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