The issue is two-fold:
1. Health workers are exhausted and they sorely need a break.
2. The proposed solution is to revert back to ECQ (or impose more stringent restrictions on movement).
Both are important but should be addressed separately. 1/
HWs are tired. Their patient load continues to increase but their own numbers are decreasing. Many are getting sick themselves.
Their morale is low because gov't has let them down. They can't get the protection and benefits they deserve.
They need time to rest, to breathe. 2/
The complaints of HWs are real and valid.
Those working in hospitals are our last lines of defense. When they speak, we should take notice.
That they are appealing now conveys a sense of urgency. Let us not wait until they are desperate, angry, or absent, before we act. 3/
Is the reinstitution of more stringent restrictions by re-imposing ECQ the way to go?
Perhaps not.
For one, the problem of patient overload is not really addressed. COVID-19 patients needing special/critical care will still come.
Non-COVID patients will have a hard time too.4/
Also, with the Du30 govt, attendant conditions to make the ECQ more relevant than before will probably not happen.
The same people at the helm will just do the same nothing.
Worse, an ECQ will feed the "pasaway" narrative and the militarist, punitive governance we have now. 5/
Maybe other options to an ECQ can be considered:
1. Active, aggressive recruitment of additional HWs NOW!
Offer better terms and working conditions, a much better package to attract HWs. Assure better support and protection to address their fears.
Seek HWs aggressively. 6/
2. Further improve the vetting and triaging of patients from the communities and LGUs.
To further decrease the number of patients winding up in the hospitals, efforts in the communities can be strengthened and streamlined even more.
Sadly the HWs there are also overburdened. 7/
Lastly, any remedy must include the immediate replacement of the DOH secretary and the DOH and IATF leadership.
No solution, short- and long-term, will be meaningful if efforts are placed under the same people who got us in this sh*thole in the first place. 8/8
#Resign
#Oust
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