Thread by @tonyocruz

LOOK: Doctors’ group SECOND OPINION calls on colleagues to reclaim medical quarantine, reject Duterte-style lockdowns

Prescribes 6 steps for more effective COVID19 response

SECOND OPINION: “Doctors and HCWs must reclaim quarantine for what it should be: a public health measure aimed at saving lives by stopping the spread of disease. We must reject the distorted forms of “community quarantine” (that are) devoid of scientific sense and health purpose”

SECOND OPINION: “If we are to implement a quarantine, it must be a MEDICAL QUARANTINE, with healthcare workers in the lead and with clear health goals and outcomes.”

SECOND OPINION: “Consistent with the six pillars of our healthcare system, we prescribe the following, stat:

1. Leadership: Immediate removal of Health Sec. Duque and all generals and ‘czars’ infesting the Inter-Agency Task Force.”

SECOND OPINION:

“2. Human Resources: Rcruitment of more health workers (ie. 10,000 doctors and 20,000 nurses) by offering much better packages to attract them, including better terms and better working conditions, commensurate pay and benefits, and more support and protection.”

SECOND OPINION:

3. Health finance. P90-billion for new HCWs, equipment, infra and measure

4. Service delivery. Ensure care from primary to tertiary, bet public and private, and both COVID19 and non-COVID19 cases

5. Health tech. Enhance capacities to test, trace, treat, isolate

SECOND OPINION:

“6. Health Information: Immediate improvement of COVID19 data processing and management, by full disclosure of sources and manner of processing, and depoliticizing COVID19 data by providing better access.”

SECOND OPINION:

“(T)hese 6 steps will put us in a better footing to protect our HCWs as they try to save more lives. These also allow room for health workers to gather themselves, breathe, and be reinvigorated even as more long-term interventions are being put in place.”

SECOND OPINION:

“We call for an end to all militaristic and fascist measures being done in the name of quarantine. Too many lives of HCWs have been needlessly lost due to the wrong priorities taken by this criminally-negligent, corrupt, and tyrannical government.”

SECOND OPINION:

“To honor our fallen colleagues is to demand a radical shift from the present blundering response to a scientific, public health, and pro-people response.”

The SECOND OPINION statement was signed by:

@genenisperos, MD
Geneve Rivera-Reyes, MD
Darby Santiago, MD
Sean Velchez, RN
@STPbasileo, MD
Soraya Escandor, MD

If you’re a doctor or HCW and you wish to add your name to this statement, please contact SECOND OPINION through their Facebook Page

facebook.com/SecondOpinionP…

UPDATE: As of 10:30 pm, 79 new signatories (MD, RN, RCh, RPh, MPH, and other HCWs) added to the SECOND OPINION statement

web.facebook.com/SecondOpinionP…