Health Workers ‘Grappling With Fatigue'
The New Paper|October 12, 2021
Heavier workload and manpower shortage increase strain as Covid cases hit thousands, but new health measures may provide respite
Shabana Begum & Nadine Chua
Health Workers ‘Grappling With Fatigue'

More patients to tend to, working overtime and recalled for duty on days off, no time for toilet breaks, exhaustion and feeling burnt out.

This is what many healthcare workers in hospitals have been going through since Covid-19 cases rose to the thousands daily from mid-September.

For nurse Anne (not her real name), the number of infected patients she has to monitor in a Covid-19 ward of a SingHealth hospital has doubled.

In July and early August, the 24-year-old and her colleague took care of six patients at any one time. Now, they look after 12.

“We don’t even have time to go on breaks. I would just push through and sometimes don’t even use the toilet,” she said.

Like Anne, the healthcare workers The Straits Times spoke to declined to reveal their names – and, in some cases, the hospitals they work in – because of work policies.

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