While the Gauteng health system is buckling under the surge of COVID-19 infections in the province, it has now emerged that there are also concerns about a shortage in staff. The crisis is linked to the closing of the Johannesburg, Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in April due to a fire.

The Democratic Nursing Organization of South Africa’s Gauteng leader, Bongani Mazibuko, says there a shortage of medical staff, and more specifically nurses. He says they have been struggling with a shortage of nurses in the province, even before the coronavirus pandemic arrived, but the pandemic has made the situation even more trying.

The impact of the closure of the Charlotte Maxeke hospital has added to the problems in the healthcare department in Gauteng, with less space was available to treat COVID patients in the province. Mazibuko says that the closure also led to the overburdening of hospitals such as Rahima Moosa, and Helen Joseph, to name a few. He added, “unfortunately, the reopening of the hospital is being done in phases. So, it’s something that is ongoing, but it’s not addressing the immediate challenge that we have in terms of shortage of beds and shortage of personnel for the province in combating COVID-19.

Mazibuko says both the rise in COVID-19 infections, as well as other hospitals having to deal with patients that would normally have been treated at Charlotte Maxeke hospital, are contributing factors to the crisis. Other hospitals are having to treat patients, such as ‘neuro’ patients, that would ordinarily have been referred Charlotte Maxeke hospital. These hospitals don’t have the equipment needed to assist those patients and some of them don’t even have adequate ICU’s. Some don’t even have the number of ICU beds that would have been available in Charlotte Maxeke.

On Radio Islam’s ‘Your World Today’ slot, Mufti Yusuf Moosajee inquired of Mazibuko government had a plan of action to recruit more nurses and if they would they be able to hire enough competent people to fill in the gaps. Mazibuko replied, “At the moment the provincial public sector is accepting applications for all qualified nurses and at DENOSA we are advocating to say that the province has a working relationship with nursing agencies. So, we are calling on them to actually give contract employment to nurses, so that those nurses would be able to assist in alleviating the pressure of the system at the moment.” The impact on, for example, the intensive care unit, is that it has become impossible for an ICU nurse to only take care of one patient.  Mazibuko says ideally, “you’d expect an ICU unit to be looking after one patient, but with the current situation, you find that in some instances one nurse is looking after two or three patients.” He adds that even private hospitals have reported that one ICU nurse is looking after about four patients, because the situation is that dire.

Regarding the effect of the current situation on nurses, Mazibuko said, “A couple of weeks ago, even before we reached the numbers that we are on, the way that the system is overburdened and with the challenges that the nurses are going through, we are looking at nursing staff that are on the verge of burnout.” He says these are people who have also lost loved ones, colleagues and patients, and who also need support, but are overworked and overburdened at the moment, so it’s important that the community keeps highlighting and sending messages of support, in appreciation, to healthcare workers.

Umm Muhammed Umar