International Nurses Day: GP MEC pays homage to Nurses who succumbed to Covid

On Thursday, the Gauteng MEC for health, Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi, saluted nurses on International Nurses Day and paid tribute to the nurses who succumbed to the Covid pandemic.

It has been a challenging two years for nurses and medical workers fighting at the front line of the pandemic with limited resources, support, or training.

Mokgethi said nurses were more often the first point of contact in the provision of healthcare and were key in providing services and health education to the public.

“We can never overemphasise the key role of nurses in healthcare provision.

“The past two years since the onset of the Covid pandemic have demonstrated this. Despite fears and anxiety about the new virus, and excessive workload, many nurses continued to show resilience as they went about their daily responsibility,” said Mokgethi.

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Democratic Alliance shadow MMC of health Jack Bloom said nurses were the unappreciated backbone of our health service.

“I have great sympathy for the plight of nurses who often have to fill the gaps because of staff shortages, including clerical tasks, portering and cleaning,” he said.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union’s (Nehawu) general secretary, Zola Saphetha, said the government should invest in the health workforce and employ more health workers in order to have an effective, functional system.

“The department of health must prioritise the skilling, capacitating, educating and training of nurses to ensure that adequate and efficient nursing services are delivered in order to meet the health needs of our people and qualitative support for the better health sector,” he said.

A sister, Anna Khunwani, said it was a calling and an honour as a nurse to serve people, especially the frail and helpless elderly.

“The pandemic was very stressful for all of us.

“The elderly residents found it very difficult, especially during the lockdown, as they missed their visitors, children and grandchildren,” she said.

Khunwani said the dedication of her management and nursing team made her job easier and worthwhile.

A nurse, Christine Traill, said nursing during the pandemic of the past two years was challenging. She recently moved from a ward nurse to working as a transplant coordinator.

“I cried a lot and laughed so little. There was a lot of heartbreak. We lost a lot of patients and we lost a lot of ourselves too,” she said.

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Traill said there were more low points than highlights but she will remember the latter.

“The highs are always amazing, especially when survivors came to thank us after they recovered,” she said.

“It’s amazing to see people recover. It makes you realise every was not in vain. “Most of the patients died, but those few who survived, lived to tell the tale.”