Medical Officer at National Health Laboratory Services

Key Job Responsibilities

• Participate in verification and investigation of outbreaks as part of the Outbreak Response Unit (ORU), a sub-division of Division of Public
• Health and Surveillance team. 
• Liaise with clinicians, Department of Health and laboratory staff to obtain necessary information and provide technical expertise for outbreak verification and investigation. 
• Work with NICD, Province and District staff in implementing public health responses to verified outbreaks. 
• Support NICD centres in investigating clinical queries and drafting/updating relevant resources on the NICD website (e.g alerts, FAQs, guidelines) as required. 
• Assist with teaching and supervision of trainees (e.g Community Service Medical Officers,
• Public Health Medicine Registrars, Field epidemiology Training Programme residents) who rotate through the ORU. 
• Participate in academic activities of the unit, including writing of unit-specific Standard Operating Procedures, contributing to outbreak-/public health-related internal publications, initiating or participating in research projects, including protocol development (or assistance thereof) and publishing the research findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals 
• Attend to calls received via the NICD Clinician Hotline
• Minimum Requirements and Key Competency
• Medical Doctor (MBBCh/MBChB) 
• Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (desirable) 
• Registration with HPCSA as a Medical Doctor
• 1-year experience in public health or medical microbiology or virology 
• Outbreak response experience (involved in at least one large outbreak responses in the past 24 months; desirable) 
• Project Management Skills (desirable) 
• Leadership and policy development skills (desirable) 
• Troubleshooting Skills
• Analytical Skills 
• Innovation Skills 
• Working with high-level stakeholders (desirable) 
• Ability to multi-task 
• Mentoring and coaching.