[imagesource: Courtney Africa/African News Agency]

The 8PM cheering, banging of pots, and blasting of vuvuzelas may have died out, but the South African public’s appreciation for our healthcare workers has not.

Day after day, we hail them as heroes fighting on the frontline against a deadly pandemic, and rightly so.

Here’s the first problem with that – many South Africans then go back to living their lives as normal, socialising and increasing the risk of COVID-19 spread.

How many heartbreaking open letters do we need to read before we heed their advice? There may be a gradual decline in our second wave, but that doesn’t mean the country’s healthcare workers are getting a break from the day to day trauma of it all.

Speaking to GroundUp earlier this week, health professionals laid out how they are battling to cope emotionally with what they are witness to, and feel that they are not getting adequate mental health support:

“Emotionally, we are not coping. Seeing death at this rate every day is not normal,” says Mosima Doreen Mabeba, a nurse working in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a provincial hospital in Limpopo…

To overcome the physical exhaustion and emotional fatigue Mabeba says she has relied heavily on prayer. And, she uses the shower as a safe place to let go and cry…

The suspension of visiting hours has meant that staff have to support patients who are isolated from their families and to deal with the families who are not allowed to view the body of a loved one who died. “It is really painful.”

Meanwhile, some South Africans refuse to wear masks to the shops for mere minutes, ranting about their freedoms, whilst healthcare workers do so for hours on end.

Dr Precious Dohnodzo Chikura, who works at a district hospital in Mpumalanga, has had enough of the ‘heroes’ tag:

While Chikura appreciates the sentiment behind encouragements like “healthcare workers are heroes”, she says it creates a false impression that they do not buckle under the pressure or need support.

“There’s a danger in that hero label,” she says, adding that it puts health workers in a position where they have to over-perform all the time.

“Looking at healthcare workers as heroes neglects the government’s responsibility to provide danger pay, and time off after experiencing trauma.”

That money for danger pay was eaten, and eaten quickly, in the looting frenzy that followed the announcement of COVID-19 relief funds last year.

It also beggars belief that we are still not at the point where vaccines are being administered to our healthcare workers, with government saying the rollout will begin in mid-February.

Some nurses have said they won’t take a vaccine, even when it becomes available, but the majority remain keen.

According to a News24 report from earlier today, our health officials delayed engaging with various vaccine makers months after many other countries had already concluded deals to secure millions of doses.

President Ramaphosa can blame rich countries for ‘hoarding’ vaccines all he wants, but our procurement process has been flawed and pedestrian throughout.

As for us everyday South Africans, in lieu of the 8PM clapping and hollering, let’s consider ways in which we can really make a difference.

Masks for Medics is one example (more info on that cause here, and their Facebook page here), as is ensuring every precaution is taken to minimise the risk of spreading COVID-19.

[source:groundup]