Healthcare workers face immense discrimination

…coronavirus does not discriminate – nursing supervisor

Healthcare workers across the country, particularly in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), are now facing unprecedented levels of discrimination from members of the public after the first coronavirus patient died at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) along with five confirmed cases and multiple others in mandatory quarantine.

Championing the cause for healthcare workers, who are also our front-line workers, is the Manager/Head of Strategic Planning and Communication at GPHC, Chelauna Providence, who stated that these workers are concerned over the level of exposure of contracting the deadly virus on a daily basis whilst executing their jobs.
“We have been receiving reports from nurses and doctors that taxi services have refused to pick them up and bring them to work, supermarkets have asked them to leave when they are in uniform or have their badges on, we basically want to let the public know that nurses especially are frontline workers when it comes to responding to COVID-19.”
Further, she added, “these concerns are legitimate concerns and we understand that every day we come into the hospital and we are concern over the level of exposure. We want people to extend the same courtesies that they give to everyone else to nurses and doctors not only from GPHC but generally when they see them.”
Providence stated that the stigma that is being displayed is due to lack of knowledge and as such, persons should educate themselves of the necessary precautionary measures set out by the Health Ministry and the Pan American Health Organisation.
“With the COVID-19, the threat is basically to anyone, it’s not just doctors and nurses that people need to be concerned about and so we also want to reinforce that people should take the necessary precautions as they are advised by the health authorities, practice their handwashing, social distancing, respiratory etiquette,” she posited.

‘Why you pick up this nurse’
During an engagement with the media, Nurse Babb, who is attached to the GPHC, detailed her struggles, from having a hard time using public transportation to being prevented from entering businesses right after the news broke of Guyana’s first COVID-19 case.
“My first experience that I had was about a day or two after the news broke about the patient that died, I was going home from work and I got into a bus on the 44 bus park and as soon as I went into the bus, they had people inside of the bus that had on the face mask and everything like that and as soon as I got into the bus, I was sitting at the front it was this middle-age lady ask ‘why you pick up this nurse’ and I was like why the driver can’t pick me up.”
Babb further explained that nurses and doctors cannot adjust to the current shift/rotation system set out by the Public Service Ministry which makes the job a bit more frustrating for them.
“You know how they’re doing the whole shift system now, you work you stay home you work, I’ve been working overtime, like I’m tired but I still have to come to work because I can’t leave the patients undone because they’re still sick patients coming,” she explained.
Another one of her colleagues, Anthony, who is also a nurse, stated that the discrimination has resulted in him walking with clothes to change before leaving work to avoid stigmatisation.
“My first experience with the COVID-19 breakout, well, two days after the [news] I was at Camp Street and Carifesta Avenue waiting on a bus and when the bus stop, the people in the bus said driver why you stop to pick up the nurse and he just came from work.”
Nurse Anthony also shared another incident which occurred at the CID Headquarters. “I went to the CID to visit my sister and the police at the gate said that nurses can’t come into the compound because the coronavirus is by the hospital,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Supervisor of Nursing, Dr Shonette Goodridge made a special call for national unity during this time since the coronavirus does not discriminate. (Shemar Alleyne)