Pioneering medical accessibility

Growing up in the rural KwaZulu-Natal midlands with her grandparents and witnessing and their medical needs, with its lack of medical facilities, made a lasting impression on Dr Winile Makhaye. She saw the huge expenses involved in accessing what was needed to manage their chronic conditions.

- SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS

“At a young age I already knew I needed to grow to make life easier for my grandparents and my community. And medicine, for me, was a way of serving people while also challenging the systems that often neglected our health needs.

“My path to eye, nose and throat (ENT) specialising was at the advice of my mentor as a junior doctor who was passionate about becoming a surgeon, Dr Babongile Zulu. She was one of the first black female surgeons to graduate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and was therefore a huge inspiration to many of us.

“Having had minimal exposure to ENT as a student and an intern, I then invested some time during my community service to learn more about the discipline.”

Working at Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi, KZN at the time, Makhaye said she witnessed first-hand the power of ENT intervention on lives.

“I saw how children suffered isolation due to hearing loss and foul-smelling pus from their ears as a result of infection, and who had their lives completely transformed, not to mention social integration, after accessing ENT services and receiving the appropriate medical or surgical intervention.

Makhaye is one of the few black female specialist otolaryngologists in South Africa making a meaningful impact on both the medical field and her community.