Emergency Medicine Doctor to Psychiatrist
Biography
Schooling/Undergraduate Medical Degree
Dr Pickford grew up in Durban and attended Clifton Preparatory School. High schooling was at Hilton College near Pietermaritzburg where he matriculated in 1978.
He completed his medical degree at Stellenbosch University in 1985. This was followed by an internship at Addington Hospital in Durban.
Postgraduate Studies
Dr Pickford, in 1992, was one of the first doctors in the country to qualify with the postgraduate diploma in primary emergency care (Dip PEC). In the same year he also obtained a postgraduate diploma in community health (DCH) from Stellenbosch University. Changing tack, he obtained a degree in theology (BTh (Arts)) cum laude in 2001. Thereafter, he obtained the postgraduate diploma in mental health (DMH) in 2009, before finally specialising in psychiatry and being admitted as a Fellow of the College of Psychiatrists in 2013.
Rescue Diving Training - Maldives Islands
Clinical Career
Much of Dr Pickford’s pre-psychiatry medical career was spent in emergency medicine and private general practice. He practiced in many parts of South Africa, including Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg. He also gained experience overseas in the Comoros Islands, the Maldives Islands, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. In 2001 he moved to Underberg in KZN where he worked as an emergency responder, a general practitioner, and for a private psychiatric institution until 2009. It was then that he decided to specialise in psychiatry. After qualifying as a specialist at UKZN, he entered private psychiatric practice in Pietermaritzburg and Howick in 2014. Since 2021 he has been practicing from his rooms in Hilton.