Covid 19: Ethical Impact on Healthcare and Lessons Learned in Preparation for Future Pandemics

Abstract

The Covid 19 pandemic had a severe impact on healthcare services throughout the world. The impact was seismic, and countries were struggling to cope with the demands of the pandemic and provide healthcare to the populace. In allocating scarce resources, certain decisions were made that were not always favourable to the individual patient, healthcare practitioners, and the general population. In South Africa, doctors were forced to make life-and-death decisions to safeguard access to limited resources. Lessons were learned during this pandemic, which hopefully will help in dealing decisively with future pandemics without infringing on patients' rights. In this article, medical ethics were explored, and it was noted which of the four principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice were overlooked and how these can be avoided in future pandemics. We explored the impact that the pandemic had on vulnerable patients, the elderly, those with cancer, and children. There was also an exploration of the Covid pandemic's impact and how the South African government can prevent these in the future