Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Dr Nicholas Pearce leading COVID-19 response at Universitas Academic Hospital

30 June 2021 | Story André Damons | Photo André Damons

Dr Pearce_web read more use — Dr Nicholas Pearce, Head of the COVID-19 Task Team at the Universitas Academic Hospital, leads a dedicated team of professionals at the testing and vaccination site of the Universitas Academic Hospital, adjacent to our Bloemfontein Campus.

It is impossible to quantify the number of hours Dr Nicholas Pearce, Head of the COVID-19 Task Team for the Universitas Academic Hospital, spent working in response to this deadly virus since the first case was reported in South Africa last year.

According to Dr Pearce, who is the Head of the Department of General Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), the initial preparation phase required many hours of brainstorming, planning, and physical hours working on site. He also spent countless hours awake at night trying to come up with solutions for the many challenges faced along the way. This is in addition to being available telephonically twenty-four-seven for any issues related to equipment, staffing, and facilities.

“I was attending a vascular surgery congress in Germany last year January (2020) when China just announced the outbreak of COVID-19. I noticed an increased number of travellers wearing surgical masks at an airport in the Middle East when I was travelling to South Africa.

“Upon my return to work, I approached management to discuss procurement of PPEs, as it was just a matter of time before COVID-19 would hit South Africa and the rest of the world. When things escalated, I was asked to head the COVID-19 response team at Universitas Hospital,” explains Dr Pearce.

Kind human being with a soft heart

(Photo: André Damons)

Dr Pearce, who was brought up to always strive to be better, is driven and motivated to succeed. He has a very analytical brain and loves challenges. In fact, he does not believe in problems and only sees challenges. This kind human being can sometimes seem quite tough on the outside, but actually has a very soft heart.

“I think it is human nature to want to feel needed. I have an inherent urge to help my fellow human beings. This is also the reason why I became a health-care professional and why I am passionate about teaching,” says Dr Pearce.

With South Africa lagging behind with its vaccination programme, the hard work is far from over for Dr Pearce and his team. Says Dr Pearce: “The initiation of a mass vaccination site posed a whole new set of challenges, which once again required many hours of planning. The initial stages of running the vaccination site required many hours of physical hard work a day. Then there is also the daily operations meeting at 18:00 every weekday to discuss the vaccine roll-out in the province.”

Frustrations and setbacks

For Dr Pearce, this pandemic highlighted the differences between individuals from different social classes in our country. Providing quarantine and self-isolation facilities for individuals who do not have access to such facilities at home is one such example.

“We all have a right to clean water and good quality healthcare. This also includes a right to oxygen. This right to oxygen has proved to be one of our great challenges in managing this pandemic. Delivery of these large amounts of oxygen has been especially challenging. Some days we require in excess of five tons of oxygen,” says Dr Pearce.

(Photo: André Damons)

There have been many frustrations and setbacks on this journey, some of which can be quite demoralising and demotivating, but knowing that he is doing something good for his fellow human beings gives this gentle and diligent healthcare worker a tremendous amount of energy. “Positive feedback from patients and colleagues far outshines all the frustrations and disappointments,” concludes Dr Pearce.

Outside of work

After finishing online meetings at home, Dr Pearce relaxes with his partner by chatting about the day’s events and cooking supper together while enjoying a glass of wine. He also tries to connect with family who lives in Gauteng. Because of work pressures and the pandemic, he has not been able to see them as much.

News Archive

Another boost for sport at the UFS

2005-10-13

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has officially appointed Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd, which has former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis as managing director, to manage its Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Services (CESSS) on the Bloemfontein campus.

According to Prof Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector: Academic Operations, the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is another step in the implementation of the UFS’s wide-ranging sport strategy to improve sport facilities and elevate formerly marginalized sports such as soccer, hockey, netball, tennis etc.

Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is the manager of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and coordinates and manages the national basketball high-performance programme of SA Basketball, as well as the Boxing Academy on behalf of Boxing South Africa.

“It is also actively involved with the sports plans of several tertiary institutions like that of the University of Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch,” said Prof Verschoor.

“Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was also appointed by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to manage the allocation of sports codes to high-performance centres and to oversee the allocation of monies received from the National Lottery to these centres – this includes the CESSS at the UFS,” Prof Verschoor added.

In unfolding its national sports plan, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has already identified the UFS-based CESSS as the high-performance testing centre for the national basketball teams whilst the national boxing teams are also earmarked to be trained at the UFS.

“We are glad to be associated with a company of this stature and look forward to work with them in the further development of sports at the UFS,” said Prof Verschoor.

According to Prof Verschoor, the CESSS will act as a centralised body that is responsible for the coordination and management of joint initiatives between professional service providers, research projects and KovsieSport.

“The centre will also coordinate and manage joint initiatives between various academic programmes in different academic subject fields such as sports medicine, bio kinetics, physiotherapy, dietetics, etc. ,” said Prof Verschoor.

These initiatives will help the UFS to become a centre and catalyst of sports development, to become internationally recognised in the field of exercise and sports science research and to become a centre for high quality sports performance enhancement.

Some of the objectives of the CESSS are:

To provide sports science services like to athletes, students, the general public and other stakeholders including certain national sport teams.
To provide the necessary teaching and training facilities and internship opportunities for UFS students in sports related fields of study will also be provided by the centre like human movement science.
To present skills-transfer programmes directed at the broader community like development of skills in various sporting codes.
To continue and extend the current chronic risk reversal programmes presented by the Department of Human Movement Science such as obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation and other lifestyle related conditions.

The centre was founded in 2003 and was until now managed by Dr Louis Holtzhausen, from Kovsie Health and a consultant, Dr Gary Vorster.

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed today by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The manager of the centre appointed by Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is Mr Charles Store, an alumnus of the UFS, previously employed at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town and by the SANDF at 3 Military Hospital, Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
072-207-8334
12 October 2005

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept