Pretoria - Patricia Msiza wakes up at the crack of dawn to prepare herself to travel from Soshanguve to Pretoria where she works as a nurse every day.
To fend for her four children, 46-year-old Msiza alternates six to six shifts on a week to week basis.
During the Covid-19 period, the health worker contracted the deadly disease six times and nearly faced death. At the time the medical sector couldn’t be in quarantine and lost a lot of medical practitioners because of the disease.
Last week, at 5am on a dark winter morning, Msiza left her house at block FF in the township, but stared death in the face when she was robbed of her belongings by thugs who had been roving throughout the night to take criminal opportunities against innocent residents such as Msiza.
“I have to do this job every day to survive. I love and am passionate about my work. Sometimes it’s dangerous, but somebody has to do it,” she told the Pretoria News.
Besides the hard demanding job, people like Msiza have had the privilege of being recognised by the Health Excellence Organisation that honours healthcare professional caregivers.
Speaking to the Pretoria News, the NGO’s secretary Sylvia Maseko said the role of the organisation was to recognise and acknowledge the good work that they do in saving lives.
The organisation has been awarding healthcare workers in Mpumalanga for almost four years, but has now committed to expand across the country.
“Some of the reasons that made us come up with this initiative include the fact that there’s a high prevalence of worker burnout, depression, anxiety, stress and post-traumatic disorder in South Africa.
“This is primarily due to demanding work schedules and an overall shortage of staff. Most clinicians report symptoms of depression, exhaustion and even sleep disorders,” Maseko said.
She added that mental health services were overshadowed by other health needs, which include the high burden of infectious diseases, such as HIV and TB.
“Grieving for personal losses as well as for patients and colleagues, combined with the challenges associated with the health fraternity all together pose a formidable demand on any individual’s resilience,” Maseko said.
Besides the awards the NGO hosts educational activities through medical events. “Most of these medical events happen in big cities like Joburg, Cape Town and Durban and most of the company representatives are focused on these areas which makes it difficult and expensive for our healthcare professionals to attend these, hence we are bringing the medical events closer to their area of practice.
“We are not only focusing on Mpumalanga, but other remote areas like Limpopo, the North West, the Eastern Cape, etc.
“What triggered the idea is the fact that this is the only initiative that the public uses to appreciate the good work being done by healthcare professionals. We find these healthcare professionals throughout the country, hence there’s been always a calling every year by other provinces to host these awards for them, but we couldn’t respond to that calling because we wanted to be first well established in our province but we feel that we are now ready to go national.”
According to Maseko, any healthcare professional registered with the relevant council, be it the Health Professions Council of SA, the SA Nursing Council or SA Pharmacy Council, qualify for the awards.
“The criteria is that they must be seeing patients and not be in an administrative role. They must have attended educational activities proving how they go the extra mile to save lives,” she said.
The adjudicators shortlist and choose finalists who will be voted for.
“There’s also a category where we honour remarkable healthcare professionals who have done something extraordinary in the health space.”
Asked if she thought the government was doing enough to support healthcare workers, Maseko said as a Non-Profit Organisation they depended on companies to realise their dream of recognising healthcare professionals.
She said funding was their biggest challenge. “Funds have been a challenge ever since we started these awards four years ago because we don’t have support from the government yet. This is a very demanding project financially because healthcare workers don’t pay to enter or even attend the awards, but there are many costs involved in organising these,” she said.
Pretoria News