Returning to Level 5 won’t solve anything - SAMA
Renewed calls for a return to a harder lockdown by various individuals and organisations are counter-productive and will not achieve meaningful results in the fight against COVID-19. The South African Medical Association (SAMA) says focusing on strengthening health facilities, and vaccinating healthcare workers, is a more sensible approach now.
“The corona virus is out there, and returning to lockdown Level 5 will only harm our already fragile economy, and place businesses who are already struggling in further jeopardy. The current Level 3 lockdown is sufficient but it must be accompanied by a wholesale improvement to medical care which requires a lot more focus on providing health facilities with resources to increase their capacity,” says Dr Angelique Coetzee, Chairperson of SAMA.
Dr Coetzee notes that since the start of the pandemic SAMA has called for more and better quality PPE for healthcare workers, increased numbers of doctors and other healthcare workers at public health facilities, lifting of moratorium on medical officer posts and for more essential equipment to also be made available.
“We’ve all heard the stories and read the personal accounts of doctors who are struggling to cope with the lack of PPE, PPE which damages easily, of being overworked because of a lack of other medical professionals, or of equipment which either doesn’t work properly or which is simply not available. You can have as many beds as you want in any facility but without the medical expertise to treat a person lying in that bed it means nothing. And, those medical professionals also need working equipment and protect themselves against infection. These steps, we believe, are more necessary than returning to Level 5 lockdown,” says Dr Coetzee.
Dr Coetzee says SAMA is being contacted daily by doctors who say they are burnt out from being overworked, but who also say authorities are not taking their concerns seriously enough.
“It’s a point we will continue making until it is taken more seriously than it currently is. At some point the pool of doctors working now is going to thin out due to exhaustion; you can have as many lockdowns as you like but not dealing with this critical core issue will sooner or later catch up with you,” Dr Coetzee notes.
In addition, Dr Coetzee says a vital step in dealing with the pandemic is to ensure all healthcare workers in the country are vaccinated as soon as possible. She says these healthcare workers are on the front lines of fighting COVID-19 and risking their own and their families’ lives daily by simply stepping into healthcare facilities to treat patients.
[ENDS]
Notes to Editors
About SAMA
The South African Medical Association was formally constituted on 21 May 1998 as a unification of a variety of doctors’ groups that had represented a diversity of interests. SAMA is a non-statutory, professional association for public, and private sector medical practitioners. SAMA is a voluntary membership association, existing to serve the best interests and needs of its members in any and all healthcare related matters.
Contact:
Head of PR & Communications
Dr Simonia Magardie
082 905 8505
Email: simoniam@samedical.org
Spokesperson 1
Chairperson: SAMA
Dr A Coetzee
082 379 8118
Email: dr.coetzee@worldonline.co.za
Spokesperson 2
Vice-Chairperson: SAMA
Dr M Mzukwa
076 382 8152
Email: mzukwam@gmail.com