Paid partnership with OrthoBasics.
There is a weird quirk to how we train doctors in South Africa. Depending on where the system places you for internship, you get one of two extremes when it comes to acute orthopaedics.
If you land at a big tertiary academic hospital, there’s a layer of registrars between you and the front door. You do plenty of ward admin and discharge summaries, and almost none of the hands-on reductions or plasters.
Or you land at a busy regional or district casualty. The registrars are tied up in theatre, the waiting room is packed, and at two in the morning you’re the one reducing dislocations and putting on backslabs - working it out on the fly without a senior standing next to you to show you where your moulding went wrong.
Either way, you hit community service or MO calls with gaps nobody ever properly closed.
That’s the exact gap OrthoBasics was built to fix. On the 13th of November at Groote Schuur in Cape Town, experienced orthopaedic surgeons are running a one-day practical course.
Morning’s lectures - X-rays, open fractures, compartment syndrome. Afternoon’s four stations: upper and lower limb POPs, joint injection and aspiration landmarks, reducing common dislocations, and putting on Thomas splints, skin traction, and pelvic binders.
It’s R2,800, which includes their printed ortho guidebook, and it’s accredited for eight HPCSA CPD points. They’ve capped it at thirty spots so you actually get hands-on time, and registrations close on the 10th of November.
The details
- What it is: in their words, “akin to ATLS, but designed specifically for orthopaedics”
- Who it’s for: interns, community service doctors, MOs, GPs and casualty staff
- When: Friday 13 November 2026, one day
- Where: Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town
- Cost: R2,800, with the printed course manual, a certificate and lunch included
- CPD: 8 HPCSA points
- Places: 30, and registration closes on 10 November
- Register: orthobasics.co.za/register