AN OVERWHELMING majority of health workers are directly exposed to the risk of contracting COVID-19 but are highly unprotected. This is among the key findings of a nationwide survey among 450 frontliners conducted by the Citizens Urgent Response to End COVID-19 or CURE COVID and ACT for People’s Health, stressing the desperate need to provide protection and just compensation to frontliners.
The most common risk health workers face is the presence of confirmed, probable or suspected COVID-19 patients in their health facilities (83%). On the other hand, only 42.2% of respondents reported that all symptomatic health care workers in their facility are tested for COVID-19 and only 30.2% reported that asymptomatic but at-risk health care workers are tested.
It hence comes as no surprise that one in five COVID-19 infected persons are health workers. The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm on the high number of healthcare workers in the Philippines who have been infected with COVID-19. At 19% of total cases, the rate of infection among frontline health workers in the Philippines is by far the highest among 37 member states in the WHO Western Pacific Region including China — the epicenter of the coronavirus disease. The average for the region is just 2–3 percent.
The study which was conducted between April 24 and May 3 also finds consistent evidence that workers from national government hospitals are much more exposed to the risks considered in this study compared to their counterparts from local government hospitals and private hospitals. Health workers from public hospitals also reported high shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), including N95 masks, COVID-19 testing kits, mechanical ventilators, and isolation quarters. Meanwhile, LGU hospitals disproportionately face shortage of water, medication, and mechanical ventilators.
Flattening the curve not only requires the slow transmission of the virus, but also the adequate capacity of local healthcare systems, particularly the sufficiency of human resources for health. However, more than half of the respondents noted that their health facilities do not meet even half of what they perceive as the adequate number of health personnel and the sufficient number of infection, prevention, and control supplies and PPE.
Health workers confront these issues in the face of lack of proper government plan for them more than a month into community quarantine. It need not be said that our health workers are heroes especially in this most challenging time for the nation. But beyond hollow praises from the government, what they need are adequate protection and just compensation.
