Medical staff brace for New Year surge as hospitals strain under pressure

AS South Africans prepare to usher in the New Year, healthcare workers are bracing for a familiar and troubling surge, one that comes as the public health system remains under severe strain.

The South African Medical Association (Sama) has warned that the festive season typically brings increased pressure on hospitals and clinics, largely driven by higher levels of alcohol consumption and a resulting spike in emergency admissions.

According to Sama, the strain is expected to peak around New Year’s Eve, when alcohol-related injuries and accidents place added pressure on already overstretched emergency units.

Sama chairperson Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa said the festive period exposes deeper, long-standing challenges within the healthcare system.

“They are facing difficult times because of alcohol consumption in our country,” Mzukwa said. “We are among the countries with high levels of alcohol use, particularly at this time of year, and this leads to accidents, overcrowded casualty departments and increased burnout among healthcare professionals who are working with limited resources.”

The warning comes against the backdrop of a year marked by mounting pressure on South Africa’s public healthcare sector. In 2025, chronic staff shortages, failing infrastructure, surgical backlogs and corruption combined to push the system close to breaking point.

Although the government announced limited recruitment drives and modest budget increases, these measures have been widely criticised as insufficient to reverse the decline. Central to the crisis is the widening gap between the demand for healthcare professionals and the state’s capacity to employ them.

Earlier this year, unemployed healthcare graduates — particularly doctors and nurses — staged nationwide protests, highlighting growing frustration within the sector. In April, the National Health Council announced plans to recruit 1,650 healthcare workers, including 1,200 doctors and 200 nurses.

The announcement drew sharp criticism from the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), which described the number of nursing posts as inadequate.

“In the face of a nationwide crisis of nurse shortages, this announcement is not only shockingly inadequate but downright insulting,” a Denosa representative said in a year-end assessment.

Denosa has pointed to vacancy rates of up to 28% in provinces such as the Free State and Eastern Cape, while national projections suggest South Africa could face a shortfall of more than 100,000 nurses by 2030.