A TEAM of female doctors have operated on 10 patients at Tshilidzini Hospital in Thohoyandou, Limpopo in the past week as part of Women’s Month commemoration.
The outreach programme was held under the theme “Women in Health: Celebrating Women’s Month”.
Leading the pack of doctors was 41-year-old Dr Itani Dikgale, who specialises in maxillofacial and oral surgery, a predominantly male-dominated field. Dikgale is the only female doctor in the province that specialises in this.
She led a team of female dentists from Pietersburg Hospital on the outreach in order to clear the surgical backlogs, exposing other medical practitioners to new techniques and transferring skills.
“They say charity begins at home, so since I’m from Venda, and this past week I was working at Tshilidzini Hospital with a team of women in medicine in commemoration of Women’s Month, and in celebrating 150 years of Charlotte Maxeke, to give back to the people of Limpopo.
“My team comprised only female doctors, whom I work with at Pietersburg Hospital. We conducted the outreach to reduce the backlog.
“I invited all female dentists in Vhembe District to come assist or observe while operating in theatre. By doing so, some of the skills were transferred and some young female dentists ended up developing interest in furthering their studies.
“We managed to operate on 10 patients, including two trauma and eight pathology cases, and most were resection of tumours,” Dikgale said.
Her speciality involves the management of facial trauma, including head and neck pathology, infections and diagnosis, and the management of a wide variety of diseases relating to the oral and facial regions, with particular emphasis on jaw reconstruction and orthognathic surgery.
The Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University graduate added: “I feel good because we managed to restore the image and pride of those who were disfigured because of their conditions.”
Some of Dikgale’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Dental Therapy and a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from Medunsa, which she topped off with a Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery degree last year
“Maxillofacial and oral surgery is considered a bridge between dentistry and medicine, one needs to understand both disciplines. That’s why a lot of graduates have dual qualifications (both medicine and dentistry degrees).
“I believe our speciality understands the head and neck anatomy better. In other countries dual qualification is a requirement for a person to specialise in the field, but here in South Africa it is considered a dental speciality. So there is no health without oral health.”
Dikgale still thinks women are being marginalised in the medical field.
“There is a difference from a married woman’s point of view. In communities, people expect a woman to be at home taking care of household issues, whereas as a surgeon, most of the time you are in an operating theatre and some of the operations are emergencies that need you at that point in time. So as a woman you need a very strong supportive family.”
There are about 130 doctors specialising in maxillofacial and oral surgery across the country, with fewer than 20 black doctors and only four universities in the country offering the speciality
IOL