Spare a thought for health workers

Most of us will have seen images of overcrowded ICU wards in hospitals in Italy, Spain and UK – in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic – and will have marvelled at the dedication of those frontline healers, expecting more of the same from our own medical personnel.

So, when our doctors and nurses complain, or even threaten not to work, we tend to instantly attack them as unpatriotic, unprofessional and even cowardly.

But it is not as simple as that … because the medics in South Africa have to deal with issues their colleagues in Europe and the US mostly don’t even think about.

They are generally badly paid, have to work long hours and are subject to systemic discrimination … most of our medical personnel are nurses, who are women and most of them are black. So they occupy the lowest rung in society.

In addition, they work in hospitals which are overcrowded even before being overwhelmed by the Covid-19 tsunami of patients. At work, in the hostile, dangerous environment of the disease, they are chronically short of personal protective equipment and, in extreme cases, are forced to reuse medical masks for up to a week before they can change them.

But, worst of all, they work in places which have for years been gradually sinking backwards, through the looting of politicians and the sheer incompetence of administrators and senior civil servants.

We were told the initial lockdown was necessary to allow us to prepare our medical facilities. Even though much work was done, it is becoming tragically evident that we are still going to be swamped.

Had the billions which have been looted over the years – by politicians and civil servants and the “state capture” crew – been available, the picture would be vastly different.

One of the biggest comorbidities in South Africa is our ruling elite.