A Cape Town doctor has received the Silver Award in the Best Doctor of the Year category at the National Batho Pele Excellence Awards.
Dr Barry Smith, who is the medical manager at the Karl Bremer Hospital in Cape Town, shares the award with Dr Mzekelo Godongwana from the Amathole Stutterheim Hospital in the Eastern Cape as the two were deadlocked in a tie.
The Gold Award was a tie between Dr Phetho Mashaole Mangena from the Mankweng Hospital in Limpopo and Dr Nicholas Ernest Pearce from the Free State Health Department.
As the nation marks two years of Covid-19, Smith and his colleagues have been on the frontline since the first case hit South Africa in 2020.
He was honoured along with other public servants under the theme, “Combatting the Covid-19 pandemic through a Batho Pele focus, Putting People First”.
Smith, who holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Stellenbosch University, played a vital role in managing the Hospital of Hope at the CTICC where he was responsible for clinical management.
Later, in July 2020, he managed the Brackengate Hospital of Hope as chief executive officer.
According to the provincial health department, Smith further played a key role as medical manager at Karl Bremer Hospital when the second wave of Covid-19 hit, a period when the hospital transformed ordinary wards into Covid-19 wards.
According to Smith, his work during the pandemic has been one of his most meaningful contributions to the public healthcare sector.
“Being able to provide leadership to the teams I work with and doing my best on a daily basis to create an enabling working environment that leads to quality healthcare services of high public value has the most meaning to me,” he said.
In 2021, Smith was awarded the gold award for exemplary leadership at the Western Cape
Government Service Excellence Awards.
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