Urgent action needed to address South Africa's ICU bed crisis

SOUTH Africa is grappling with a severe shortage of intensive-care unit (ICU) beds in the public healthcare sector, with as few as five ICU beds per 100 000 people at best — and in some provinces, the figure is closer to just one bed per 100 000.

- ZELDA VENTER

This is according to Professor Fathima Paruk, head of the Department of Critical Care Services and Emergency Medicine at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

Speaking during a recent address titled “Carpe Diem: Achieving Efficient and Fair Allocation of Critical Care Across South Africa,” Paruk described the ICU bed crisis as a “complex challenge.”

“Hospitals are going to need more and more ICU beds because patients are living longer. ICU can save lives, and when patients live longer, they have more co-morbidities, so they end up getting sick more often,” she explained.