Discussion | Health workers' distress may be fatal

JOHANNESBURG - Unless real support is provided for healthcare workers whose moral suffering is already reaching epidemic proportions, the result could be be fatal. 

This is according to a new report published in the South African Journal of Science. 

The report says healthcare workers who are burnt out, or depressed, are less likely to provide the best care to patients.  

One of the authors of the report is Professor Jackie Hoare, head of the Division of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, and a senior consultant psychiatrist, at Groote Schuur Hospital. 

She unpacks this further.