Healthcare workers are suffering mental health strain, depression and heightened anxiety brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Laeeka Philander, who works in the Covid-19 high-care unit at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, said he had suffered emotional trauma from treating Covid-19 patients.
“I literally cried on my way home – to work, I cried … People would die in front of you then you must just be okay. And then the next person comes in that same bed, but you haven’t even mourned that previous patient yet. It was scary. It was beyond scary,” he said. World Mental Health Day was celebrated on Tuesday, with a focus on the affect of the pandemic on healthcare workers.
Lee-Shay Chindikano, a porter, started working at the hospital just before the pandemic and describes the anxiety she feels daily when wheeling the sickest patients to the Covid-19 high-care unit and ICU. “We don’t know what happens next. We don’t know if this patient is going to make it. We don’t know if we are taking this virus home with us. We don’t know if we are even going to see tomorrow,” Chindikano said.
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