HPCSA: Fast track vaccine rollout plan starting with healthcare workers
The Health Professions Council of South Africa has encouraged government to fast track its vaccine rollout plan and to priorities overburdened healthcare workers.
The Council has raised concerns about the current surge of coronavirus cases in the country, particularly among the health sector.
As numbers rapidly rise, the group of medical experts says this will continue to create an extreme burden on the health care system.
HPCSA President Professor Simon Nemutandani says overburdening workers will have a rippling effect on the efficiency and functioning of the healthcare system.
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He says they welcomed the procurement of over one million COVID-19 vaccines and hope it will be implemented effectively, "A number of facilities in some of the provinces are not coping. Both in terms of the unavailability of the beds and oxygen."
"At the same time, our healthcare workers are being affected. They are being laid off, in isolation and quarantined, therefore we have a limited number of healthcare professionals," he adds.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura says the number of hospital admissions in his province has tripled in the last seven days.
He says public hospitals are also feeling the pinch. Makhura was briefing the media on the latest Covid-19 updates in that province. Meanwhile, doctors in that province have come out saying their system is heavily overwhelmed.
