WATCH | ‘We are stressed, tired and burnt out,’ SA doctor tells Prince William and Duchess Kate

“If you know a health-care worker, just love on them some more. If their child needs looking after, offer. If they need a meal, offer.”

There are the words of SA doctor and health activist Zolelwa Sifumba when she recently spoke to Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton.

The royals were celebrating Commonwealth Day.

Because of Covid-19, the royal couple celebrated the day in a non-traditional way by making video calls to medical and charity staff across the world who have been helping smaller and marginalised communities throughout the pandemic.

In one of the calls, they spoke to Sifumba, who opened up about witnessing other medical and support staff suffering medical trauma and her hope to help them.

“We are basically struggling and facing the brunt ... Health-care workers are trying their best to be there and get the work done, but the problem is we are stressed, we are tired and burnt out,” Sifumba told the royals.

Watch the full video below

Sifumba said Covid-19 added more pressure to the health-care sector and admitted it was sad it took the pandemic for health workers and front liners to get support from the public.

“We know the problems. We see the problems every day. We walk into work and there are the problems. The problem is our voices are not heard. We are on the front lines and we are expected to lift humanity,” said Sifumba.

“My advice to everybody is, if you know a health-care worker, any health-care worker, you just love on them, love on them, love on them some more. ”

Last year, after fighting multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB), Sifumba had to battle Covid-19 and a “system that doesn’t care’” before addressing her own mental health.

In a Business Day report, she was quoted saying: “How do you work in a system that doesn’t care about you? I want to help build a system that works differently, that looks after health-care workers instead of breaking them.”

Taking to social media after the video call with the royals, Sifumba said she was hoping for “tangible assistance from the global community”.

“The world will be watching to hear the traumas health-care workers globally face on the front lines, including my journey with MDRTB (multi-drug resistant TB) and Covid-19, both contracted at work. A great honour to be encouraged by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,” she said.