“I’m just like anyone else I think.” An honest and humble statement from the well-travelled and highly educated CEO of Fort England Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Roger Walsh.
“I’m just like anyone else I think.” An honest and humble statement from the well-travelled and highly educated CEO of Fort England Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Roger Walsh.
He sits comfortably in his office, sipping on black coffee as he explains how the son of two teachers in Zambia ended up in Grahamstown, South Africa.
Having been nudged into the sciences, Walsh graduated from London’s St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1992.
“I couldn’t be a priest, so the next best thing is a doctor,” Walsh said.
He spent the rest of the 90s working at different posts in England, as well as at two separate hospitals in South Africa in between.
Walsh made the decision to officially move to South Africa in 2002, realising his heart belonged to the continent.
After working at a number of primary health care facilities in the Eastern Cape, Walsh was asked to take over at Fort England in October 2012, and on 10 February, he was officially installed as CEO.
Walsh said he really enjoys his new post at such a “historical and inspirational place”.
He is full of praise for his 460 staff members, who work hard to maintain the 51-hectare institution – the oldest psychiatric hospital in the country – which treats up to 320 patients.
The hospital also contains South Africa’s most advanced forensic psychiatry unit, where state patients are evaluated for mental competence before standing trial in serious criminal cases.
Medicine is Walsh’s profession of choice and his wife is a trainee surgeon at Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
Aside from his occupation, Walsh enjoys the outdoors, taking up hiking and canoeing on weekends.
He is also quite the sportsman, playing cricket for local club side Manley Flats, and is a proud Southern Kings and Liverpool supporter.
His main aim as CEO is to improve access to mental healthcare in the Eastern Cape.
Walsh has also proposed to move Grahamstown’s Temba TB Hospital, which is in the process of closing down, into an unused ward at Fort England.
While this would take time, Walsh is positive about the possible move.
Walsh also has plans to build links with hospitals in Alice, Peddie and Fort Beaufort.
His ultimate goal is to make full use of Fort England’s facilities and make it South Africa’s premier psychiatric hospital.
With a wealth of experience and expertise, Walsh is the perfect candidate to make this a reality.
