The Times Editorial: While medical staff across the country are being criticised for leaving their patients in the lurch during the strike, a doctor in a far-flung part of South Africa has been recognised as a hero.

Awarded the Rural Doctor of the Year award last Friday, Dr Mmabatho Kekana said the work for which she was being recognised was simply in the line of duty.

Working at the Hlabisa Hospital in Mtubatuba in KwaZulu-Natal, Kekana shows a determination that put many South Africans - striking or not - to shame.

Her dedication to reducing the number of babies born HIV-positive and teaching young men about safe circumcision is inspiring. The statistics speak for themselves: 75% mother-to-child HIV infection in 2007 reduced to 8% in 2009.

But the lessons of Dr Kekana - and many others like her in rural areas across South Africa - lie in the dedication that she offers her patients and the commitment and compassion with which she treats her staff.

And it is precisely because of this that her hospital continued to operate throughout the strike, even though it did not spare Hlabisa Hospital.

But doctors are determined to arrive at work and nursing staff to enter the premises in off-duty clothes. Clearly, for them, as for Kekana, healing must continue even in the most difficult of circumstances and despite threats of intimidation.

"There are demonstrations every day, but somehow we get on because nurses are not wearing their uniforms anymore," Kekana said.

What is most inspiring about the work that Kekana does is the ordinary-ness of her message and the lack of gimmicks and fanfare.

Many loftier South Africans can take a leaf out of her life's book.