Coronavirus chaos: Inside South Africa's 'hospitals of horrors'
An exclusive, weeks-long BBC investigation inside filthy hospitals in South Africa has exposed an extraordinary array of systemic failures showing how exhausted doctors and nurses are overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients and a health service near collapse.
"There's a huge amount of fear, and of mental and emotional fatigue. We were working with a skeleton staff even before Covid-19 and now we're down another 30%," said Dr John Black.Medics say they are 'terrified' to work at hospitals in the Eastern Cape Three other medical officials with knowledge of the relevant wards confirmed the reports of an unusual number of stillborn infants in recent weeks.
South Africa's powerful unions have been extremely active in Port Elizabeth during the crisis. Laundry workers, cleaning staff, porters and some nurses have all - at various times - gone on strike. Several doctors defended the strike action, saying that frontline staff had been pushed to the limit, not just by Covid-19, but by years of exploitation.
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