\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/107be_467873224.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
\n
Dr Kelly Gate received the Rural Doctor of the Year Award at the weekend in recognition of his work in improving health care in rural areas.<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
When Dr Kelly Gate first arrived in Ubombo, Maputaland, to do his one-year community service with the Bethesda Hospital in 2003 he found the health-care service on the brink of collapse. <\/p>\n
His love for this rural area spurred him on to work for an improvement of health care for local people. <\/p>\n
At the weekend the Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa presented him with the Rural Doctor of the Year Award in recognition of his \u201cexceptional passion for rural communities\u201d. <\/p>\n
Gate\u2019s supervisor, Dr Hervey Williams, a medical adviser in the Umkhanyakude district, said he did not think twice when he was asked to support Gate\u2019s nomination for the award. <\/p>\n
\u201cSince he joined the hospital the maternity mortality rate has dropped from 3 percent to 1.3 percent. We have also reduced the stillborn rate,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe likes working with rural communities. I guess this is what suits him the most. Some people, like him, like to work for small rural hospitals and make a remarkable difference, while many like to work for bigger urban hospitals and remain small fishes,\u201d said Williams. <\/p>\n
Gate was the third doctor in the district to receive the award. <\/p>\n
In 2003, the award was made to Dr Victor Fredlund of Mseleni Hospital and in 2010 it was made to Dr Mmabatho Kikana of Hlabisa Hospital. <\/p>\n
Williams said Gate had been nominated for his \u201cexcellent\u201d job in improving health service delivery at the hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he joined the hospital to do his community service there was only one permanent doctor and three community service doctors. <\/p>\n
\u201cFive clinics, which fall under this hospital, had no access to doctors and as a result, patients would travel more than 30km for consultations. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation was bad,\u201d said Williams. <\/p>\n
After Gate had completed his community service he left the hospital, but returned in 2008 and stayed there for a year. <\/p>\n
He then left the country to work in Britain. <\/p>\n
Gate later returned and worked at a Durban hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I had to find a doctor to work as medical manager for the Bethesda Hospital, I knew exactly who to approach. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis love for rural communities made it easy for him to take the position,\u201d Williams said. <\/p>\n
Since his return in 2010, Gate has increased the number of doctors to 10 and all clinics have regular doctors\u2019 visits. <\/p>\n
Williams said the district still faced a shortage of permanent doctors, as those who came from Britain left after completing their one-year community service. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr Kelly Gate received the Rural Doctor of the Year Award at the weekend in recognition of his work in improving health care in rural areas. When Dr Kelly Gate first arrived in Ubombo, Maputaland, to do his one-year community service with the Bethesda Hospital in 2003 he found the health-care service on the brink […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-14908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}