Dr Shaheem de Vries is the Chief Executive Officer of Groote Schuur Hospital. A seasoned medical doctor with over two decades of experience in prehospital emergency care, health leadership, and systems innovation. His journey began in 2000 as a young intern at Conradie Hospital, where a community medical officer placement at Groote Schuur Hospital and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) sparked a lifelong passion for emergency medicine.
In 2013, Dr De Vries was appointed as Head of Emergency Medical Services for the Western Cape. As CEO and later Medical Director of EMS, he oversaw a service spanning 130,000 km², with over 2,000 personnel operating a 260-vehicle fleet and managing more than 500,000 missions annually. A difficult but challenging time, he led with a people-centred approach that prioritised both community impact and staff well-being .
Dr De Vries is also a charter member of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM) and served as its Chief Executive Officer between 2016 – 2019. During this time he served as the core member of the Out of Hospital Emergency Care (OHEC) working group which focuses on strengthening out of hospital emergency care systems across the African continent. This has seen him serve as one of the global EMS experts to the WHO Emergency Care systems working group. Dr De Vries is also the founder and managing director of the Collaborative for Emergency Care in Africa (CEC Africa), a NPC specialising in pre-hospital and facility based trauma research within the Western Cape.
A committed scholar, Dr De Vries holds an MBChB, a Diploma in Primary Emergency Care, a Master’s in Emergency Medicine, and an MBA from the University of Cape Town. Despite a demanding professional life, Dr De Vries finds balance in his roles as a husband, father of two, and passionate advocate for care in under-resourced communities. A runner and keen cyclist, when not at work, Shaheem can be found alongside a school pool or sports field, embarrassing his son and daughter as one of ‘those’ parents.
