Medics pay Covid price

CRISIS: HEALTHCARE SYSTEM UNABLE TO COPE WITH NUMBER OF COVID-19 CASES – EXPERTS

Frontline workers are succumbing to Covid-19 at an alarming rate and the South African healthcare system is illequipped to deal with a situation that will have dire consequences for the country, say experts.

Continuous budget decline of national health department adds to pressure.

The country’s healthcare system is ill-prepared to deal with the scourge of coronavirus cases as the sector was plagued with unfair labour practices and poor treatment.

A report by Oxfam South Africa found that nurses, who are the backbone of South Africa’s national health system as they make up 77% of the sector, were underpaid for the work and hours put in. Some nurses can work up to 24 hours without a break.

The sector also had a shortage of professional nurses as only half were employed between 2012 and 2016, compared to the period of 2006 and 2012.

The healthcare system saw further strain due to the continuous budget decline of the national health department.

“The nature of the way the work time is organised has an impact … critical understaffing of healthcare workers in the healthcare system is one way to further exploit [them] through loopholes of not protecting the working hours,” said Dr Basani Baloyi, inequality programme head at Oxfam SA.

“This leads to stress, burnout, and cancer. Exhaustion compromises our healthcare system.”

According to a report by the World Health Organisation, to meet the current and future health needs, countries should impose an 8% increase in the number of nursing graduates each year until 2030.

But, despite the government imposing a lockdown to prepare for the peak of the pandemic, there continued to be a shortage of medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE), which meant patients would not have access to quality healthcare, said Sibongile Tshabalala, chair of organisation Treatment Action Campaign.

She used Livingstone Hospital in the Eastern Cape as an example. She said it was understaffed and had a shortage of PPE.

An internal audit report into the hospital commissioned by the Eastern Cape health department also found that screening protocols were not followed and common areas were not disinfected.

Eastern Cape has the second highest coronavirus deaths in the country.

“We have seen a lot of challenges despite the government’s readiness. This shows we are not ready and don’t have the quality healthcare system as enshrined in the constitution,” Tshabalala said.

“If healthcare workers are not happy, the patient won’t have access to quality healthcare. Covid-19 has exposed our healthcare system and has clarified what we have been saying – it is broken.”

Due to racism and patriarchy, 90.1% of the country’s nurses are women. Up to 83% of them are black women. Among them were single parents and a large number who were experiencing violence from their intimate partners and have been victims of crime, said

Ruth Mhlanga, private sector policy advisor of Oxfam in the UK.

“A staggering 69.4% of female nurses have reported experiencing violence from their intimate partner. Nurses also remain at high risk of gender-based violence in their places of work.

“They become targets for criminals who wait for them when they return home from work [after night shift]. They also have long distances to travel [to and from work].

“Nursing is a gendered sector and ignored because it is work done by women.”

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) was pleased with the report as the key findings were issues the organisation complained about to the government.

Spokeswoman Sibongiseni Delihlazo said nurses who work 24hour shifts often wait up to a year to be paid for their overtime and are also at a risk of infection due to lack of PPE.

“This is what we have been complaining about.

“It turns out government does not have a listening ear.

“Many nurses are infected by coronavirus and some have died already.

“Each time we complain about these areas, government does not care and they seem to want healthcare workers to be demoralised,” Delihlazo said.

“This is exactly where we are. Let’s brace ourselves for the worst.”