Iloilo City—A doctor is pleading the public stop discriminating health workers and staff working for the hospital where a person with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is treated.
“This discrimination must stop. Our health workers cannot be treated this way. They are the last soldiers in our fight [against COVID-19],” appealed Dr. Felix Ray Villa, chief executive officer of The Medical City Iloilo.
The hospital’s nurses, medical technologists, radiology technicians, utility workers, and security guards have been facing various acts of discrimination since Saturday when the Department of Health (DoH) confirmed Iloilo’s first positive COVID-19 case.
Some of the hospital’s 500 workers have been evicted from their boarding houses while carinderias refused to serve them food. A nearby sari-sari store even posted a signage that specifically stated it won’t sell to any of the hospital’s workers.
“Of course, they are hurting considering they risk their lives for others to live,” Villa said in an interview.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas also echoed Villa’s concern.
“Please keep in mind if they cannot eat, they cannot go to work or cannot sleep who will take care of you if you will be infected? Would you also want them to treat you the same?” Treñas said in a statement.
For Villa, the hysteria surrounding Iloilo’s first positive COVID-19 case is not helping anyone.
“People must educate themselves that our health workers follow strict protocols more than those outside the hospital,” Villa explained.
Villa also disclosed that doctors, nurses and other staff who had contact with the COVID-19 patient are undergoing quarantine and not roaming around the city.
Meanwhile, the Iloilo City government started mobilizing a public-private partnership (PPP) in addressing the problems faced by the health workers.
The Iloilo City Community College (ICCC), which is walking distance from the hospital, has been converted into a makeshift dormitory for hospital staff who need it.
Treñas said that private hotels in the city have sent beddings, pillows, toiletries, and other necessary items. (Tara Yap)