Film Screening – Doc-U-Mentally for junior doctors
Recently graduated doctors have to make a career entrance somewhere but this is seldom a decision of their own. A South African film that shows the reality of junior doctors, is screened this week in Windhoek to show young professionals how tentative, and sometimes daring the first steps of a career path may be. Gruelling work hours, inadequate compensation and health hazards are face on a daily basis by junior doctors. Mixing these elements produced a gritty, in-your-face movie, described by critics as not-for-everyone but still impacting everybody.
Film: Doc-U-Mentally
Venue: Franco Namibian Cultural Centre in Windhoek
Dates: 02 and 03 February 2017
Time: 19:00
Entry: Visit www.today.com.na/doc-u-mentally for more info regarding ticket prices and bookings.
Namibian audiences now also have the privilege of viewing Doc-U-Mentally – a film which aptly captures the pressures junior doctors have to face daily.
Namibian-based Francois Wahl, a chartered accountant with a passion for filmmaking, directed and produced the much anticipated film, which won the award for the Best South African Documentary at the prestigious Jozi Film Festival late last year.
Wahl was inspired to tell the story after experiencing almost first-hand what these young doctors go through, since his father, wife and brother are all rooted in the healthcare profession.
“The effects of sleep deprivation and the hostile environment junior doctors have to work in have damaging repercussions – and it’s this that I wanted to bring home to the viewer.”
“The film shows five different doctors from vastly diverse backgrounds, during five different calls. The main focus is to show the race against time for these doctors and how working 30 hour shifts impact their mood, performance, stress and anxiety levels as well as their personal safety,” said Wahl.
The movie is set at Ngwelezane Hospital in Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal but the conditions and events portrayed closely reflect what junior doctors in Namibia have to go through as they face a similar dilemma.
Doc-U-Mentally is not for the faint-hearted and shows real-life scenes of stab-wounds, gashes that must be sown up, near drownings, and everything in between that junior doctors need to deal with during a regular shift.
It features Dr Saishrien Rasen in the surgery unit, Dr Yenziwe Ngema in orthopaedics, Dr Wanele Ganya in paediatrics, Dr Amy Salvesen in emergency medicine and Dr Lourens Wahl in casualty.
