It took me a couple of months to finish this book. This was not because I found the story boring, but some of the stories inside the book would make me pause and reflect. The stories reminded me that I, too, could one day find myself in the same predicament as someone who relies on South Africa’s public healthcare system.
In Floor 1, Carla Chait takes the reader straight into the corridors of Baragwanath Hospital, where a dietitian has to navigate the reality of the hospital’s collapsing state with her compassion towards the patients. Chait brilliantly uses the interactions between the protagonist and her colleagues to paint a picture of the poor state of public healthcare in South Africa: collapsing infrastructure, shortage of resources, and demoralized nurses and doctors, etc.
What Chait does particularly well is remind readers that, even amid this collapse, there are doctors and healthcare professionals who remain deeply committed to the well-being of their patients. Their compassion stands in stark contrast to the dysfunction that often dominates public perceptions of the healthcare system.
Perusing through the pages of this book, I came to a quick realization that this is not a conventional medical novel, where the protagonist heals everyone, and the world becomes a better place. Floor 1 is a novel one where, as a reader, you come to terms with the realities faced by many patients using public healthcare facilities, where their life chapter could end without resolution. Chait reinforces this reality through the structure of the novel itself, where in every chapter, many of the patients’ stories end without clear resolution, leaving readers without the closure they might expect. At times, I found this frustrating.
Besides that, this is a brilliant piece of writing by Chait. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.