Dr.Kreshantha Pillay graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelor in Medicine & Surgery in 2010. She did her internship at New Somerset Hospital in Cape Town and Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg. She then completed her community service at OR Tambo Hospital, where she spent the year in the Family Medicine & Emergency Medicine Department.
After completing her time in the government sector, she worked in the sphere of general practice, where she served both lower and middle income areas. It was during this time where she was involved in the supervision and training of junior doctors and medical students.
This experience emphasised the importance of looking after a patient in a holistic way as it was only in family medicine, where the different branches of medicine came together. The role of the family practitioner or GP was one where you needed to co-ordinate care and ensure that all the facets of a person’s health worked harmoniously with the other.
She then spent 2 years in the United Kingdom where she worked for the National Health Service(NHS). She spent that time working as an Emergency Medicine Registrar.
She worked seamlessly between treating emergency cases and managing chronic illnesses.
Working overseas allowed her to learn about the positive aspects of healthcare in a first-world setting and apply it to a South African setting in a unique way.