As the world braves the Wuhan virus pandemic, it’s not the film stars, athletes or the gods who are out there fighting for humanity–it is the doctors, nurses and janitors who are the first line of defence. Every time a patient exhibiting the symptoms walks across the gate of a hospital, the doctors are knowingly putting their lives on the line. But such is the job that they cannot pull back, even for a minute because the fate of the planet rests on them.
But the question begets, are we over-exhausting the doctors? Because at the end of the day behind the masks and the PPE kits, is a person in flesh and blood. There is a certain threshold that a person can push themselves to and you may never know what might be the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Working for long hours in a stress-inducing environment is bound to test the best of doctors. They are susceptible to slip ups in a coronavirus laden setting and slip ups have a greater chance of happening when they are tired and mentally exhausted. Tired and understaffed, medical workers have to deal with thousands of new cases per week.
The doctors cannot meet their families or spend time with them in close proximity given the fear of infecting their kins. The virus can remain asymptomatic for nearly 10-14 days, therefore they need to be in quarantine for two weeks before they head back home. They are lodged in hotels or such facilities where it might get lonely at times. After a tough day at work, you want to sit with familiar faces and unwind but unfortunately it is a luxury, doctors around the world cannot afford.
Given how contagious the Wuhan virus is, medical staff has to undergo an exhaustive and tedious procedure to don the PPEs every time. In Wuhan, some doctors even wore diapers to avoid having to take off the equipment and make it last longer, and therefore they need rest proper mental rest when they go through the ordeal day in and out.
TFI suggests that doctors/nurses and other medical staff be given a day or two days off after every 3 days of duty, so that they may recharge their batteries and come out much better prepared to take on the invisible enemy head on.
There have been several instances where the doctors have succumbed to the deadly virus. Three nurses in two hospitals in Mumbai had tested positive for the virus after they were likely exposed to patients who did not have international travel history nor showed Covid-19 symptoms until they developed them later, The Hindu reported on March 31. A 65-year-old male Ayurveda doctor died due to COVID-19 in Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh, on Friday.
Even outside India, the doctors have the same plight. One hundred Italian doctors have died of the novel Wuhan virus since the pandemic reached the country in February, Italy’s main doctors’ association said on Thursday, with analysts estimating that 10 percent of those infected in Italy work in healthcare.
It is imperative that the government and the related health authorities take note of the situation and not exhaust the doctors. They are our only hope and we need to protect them at all costs and just providing them with the equipment’s is not enough, their mental health needs to be gauged and taken into consideration because the war has barely begun and we cannot afford to lose our soldiers in the white lab coats.