Attacked & underpaid: Medics in Philippines battle stigma, virus
April 8, 2020 ·
Healthcare workers in the Philippines also suffer from low wages forcing many to work abroad [File: Rolex dela Pena/EPA]
Manila, Philippines – Joaquin Sapul, Jr started getting the frantic calls a few hours after the health department announced the first coronavirus case in Iloilo City in the central Philippines on March 21.
In response, The Medical City-Iloilo, the hospital where Sapul works and where the unnamed patient was confined, issued a statement to assure the public that stringent measures were in place to ensure the safety of the patient and their staff.
“At least six nurses were messaging and calling me, crying. Their landlords were evicting them. Some were being prevented from leaving their homes by their village captains,” said Sapul, a nurse and chief patient services officer at the hospital.
It was evening by the time Sapul had finished arranging temporary sleeping arrangements for the displaced workers. He was preparing to go home when he read a message from his own landlord, asking him to look for another place to live.
Sapul worked it out with his landlord after a lengthy explanation about rigid infection-control protocols and his own safety practices, but “it still hurt,” he said.
“We healthcare workers have always enjoyed the trust of our community. I underestimated how hysteria could make them turn on us so quickly,” said Sapul.
In the days that followed, hospital staff, including cleaners were told to vacate their homes, denied public transport or refused service in nearby eateries. One street stall hung up a sign saying that they would not serve hospital workers.
As of April 1, the Philippines had 2,311 cases of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, the second-highest number in Southeast Asia. There have been 96 deaths, 17 of whom were doctors. On Tuesday, the health department reported 538 new cases, the highest in a single day.
Amid the rising number of coronavirus cases and mounting fears of infection, healthcare workers are caught in the middle, facing harassment and discrimination.
‘Violence cannot be tolerated’
Last Friday, two men on a motorcycle threw chlorine on a nurse as he made his way home through Cebu, in the central Philippines.
The next day, a healthcare worker in Sultan Kudarat in the island of Mindanao reported being attacked by a group of five men who threw bleach on his face as he was crossing the street on his way to the hospital where he worked.
“These acts of violence cannot be tolerated,” the health department said, condemning the incidents in a statement.
National police chief Archie Gamboa issued a directive to the police to protect health workers from attacks.
According to the World Health Organization, healthcare workers may become targets of violence during disaster and conflict situations. As many as 38 percent of healthcare workers are likely to experience violence at one point in their professional life, with nurses and those involved in direct patient care most at risk.
“Healthcare workers are exhausted and frustrated by the lack of support from the government in providing them even basic protective gear. If we do not put a stop to this harassment, nurses may resign,” said Reigner Antiquera, president of Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates.
Photos of nurses and hospital staff resorting to using rubbish bags and motorcycle helmets as protective gear went viral on social media, prompting an outpouring of donations of cash and protective gear from citizens and private corporations.
