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TimesLIVE reports that according to the head of trauma at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, high levels of violence and the severity of some of the injuries they deal with are driving health workers to their sick beds.
Prof Andrew Nicol told a media briefing on Thursday that many emergency workers were being booked off with burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder. "The numbers (of gunshot injuries) have increased but the complexity has changed. The heart-wrenching cases that we have to endure on a daily basis is something to behold. It does cause damage‚ especially to our young doctors who are exposed to this massive level of violence and who work on weekends often with intoxicated patients. It’s taking a toll on them," said Nicol. The head of health in the Western Cape‚ Dr Beth Engelbrecht‚ noted that ambulance staff were particularly badly affected by post-traumatic stress disorder due to the violence aimed at them. Over the last three years‚ at least 100 EMS staff have taken time off due to post-traumatic stress disorder‚ and the number was probably higher because staff did not always disclose the reason for their sick leave. "The impact of violence on staff who have to manage complex trauma‚ see and experience violence day in and day out and face a never-ending wave of illness‚ pain and injury‚ is massive‚" Engelbrecht observed.
- Read the full original of the above report by Sipokazi Fokazi at BusinessLive
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