Patients are known to gauge the efficiency of their local health centre by how long they have to wait for their medication to be dispensed. This places immense pressure on pharmacists and their assistants who often work against all odds to deliver the medicine to the hundreds waiting.

'€œThe shortage of staff makes everything bad. This is the cause of all the problems of working conditions of nurses,'€ says Sibonelo Cele, a staff nurse at Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, north of Durban.

Thousands of posts in the public health sector are vacant and the crisis is deepening as nurses, doctors and pharmacists leave in search of better working environments. However, a human resources plan to address the crisis has still not been released despite promises.