Urgency needed to address ICU bed shortage crisis

SOUTH Africa is facing a severe shortage of intensive-care unit (ICU) beds in the public health sector, with five ICU beds per 100 000 people at best available.

- ZELDA VENTER

At the same time, in certain provinces, the figure is closer to one bed per 100 000 people.

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

She said the shortage of ICU beds in the country is 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.”

Advances in medicine and a shift to outpatient and home-based care have reduced the need for long hospital stays.

Paradoxically, these dynamics have increased the demand for high-level, short-term critical care, Paruk explained.