Apart from battling the coronavirus, doctors, nurses and ward attendants attending to the patients are facing another challenge – stigma.
In Mumbai, more than 250 doctors, including nurses and Class 4 employees, contracted the infection at work, which is leading to growing incidents of discrimination against medical staffers, some of whom are not even involved in treating coronavirus patients. Neighbours and flat owners are harassing the medical staff, threatening to evict them from their apartments.
Dr Rohan Salunke, a radio oncologist who currently works at Mahatma Phule Charitable Trust Hospital and was earlier associated with the Tata Memorial Hospital, is one of the medical staffers who faced such harassment. “My housing society along with neighbouring buildings barricaded the lane in front of our building, although there was no positive case in the area. They weren’t letting anyone in or out. But I had cancer patients to treat. As I was stepping out, they saw my stethoscope and started to harass me.”
They warned him that if he stepped out, they wouldn’t allow him back. After days of harassment, on April 2, he had to call Malwani police for help. “I am not even on Covid duty, but still, they heckled me. All I wanted was to provide radiation to cancer patients to save their lives,” he said.
Nurses are among the worst-hit. In Mumbai, so far, 153 nurses, including nursing students, have contracted the infection.
{{/usCountry}}Nurses are among the worst-hit. In Mumbai, so far, 153 nurses, including nursing students, have contracted the infection.
{{/usCountry}}Pallavi Waghale, a staff nurse from government-run Sir JJ hospital, alleged that her neighbours verbally abuse her when she steps out for work daily. In a series of tweets to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she stated that her neighbours assaulted her two-year-old son when she was away at work.
A 26-year-old male nurse from the same hospital had to face the anger of his neighbours when he got home quarantined after getting exposed to a Covid patient. He said that everyday in the morning when the hospital bus would come to pick him up from his building in Kalyan, the residents would treat him like an “untouchable”. “They wouldn’t even cross my shadow in fear. Two days ago, when I got home quarantined, the society people insulted my parents and asked them to restrict their movement outside our flat,” said the nurse, seeking anonymity.
The United Nursing Association is planning to raise the issue with the health ministry. “All staffers who are on Covid duty have been given alternative accommodation to stop any possible transmission of virus among their family members. Despite this, people are harassing those on non-Covid duty. They are working for the society,” said a member of the association.
Class 4 employees, too, have similar complaints. A 50-year-old sweeper from Kasturba Hospital who was the second staff member from the hospital to contract the infection has tested negative in her swab test. Despite being discharged from the hospital, she has been forced to stay in a hospital ward because her landlord from Kalyan has warned her against returning to her room. “After I turned positive, the health department had to fumigate the chawl and quarantine the area. They fear that I might spread the infection. My landlord has asked me to stay at the hospital,” she said.
The Maharashtra State Human Right Commission has also criticised the discrimination of staff members. MA Sayyed, acting chairperson of the commission, said, “It is important to be cautious, but humiliating or harassing medical staffers is unacceptable. No rule can bring such behavioural changes among people. This is in violation of human rights and should be condemned.”