Numerous panels have been set up to deal with the crisis.

SAMA national chairperson Angelique Coetzee explained that there are fewer doctors available to cover shifts resulting in co-workers needing to work overtime to provide medical services to all the patients.

"The emotional burnout on these doctors and nursing staff is enormous and if we do not address that, we are going to lose young doctors to emigration. They just get so disillusioned, they leave the medical work that they are doing," Coetzee said.

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