Around the world, the medical community is tired. The coronavirus pandemic has yet to show signs of an end, but how well medical frontliners will hold up greatly depends on how well their governments take care of them.

In the Philippines’ Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, President Rodrigo Duterte mandated protections for healthcare workers (HCWs), such as entitlement to a “COVID-19 special risk allowance” on top of hazard pay, insured medical expenses, and compensation if they should severely contract the virus or die from COVID-19.

By the beginning of July, the Department of Health scrambled to find ways to compensate the workers as the law expired on June 25. Congress is also investigating reports of corruption in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

On the evening of August 3, Duterte heard the plea of the overwhelmed healthcare workers and brought back lockdowns, but not without daring them to stage a “revolution.”

The government has insisted that healthcare capacities are still holding up, but the situations on the ground tell a different story.

How are healthcare workers – also fatigued by the pandemic – taken care of in other parts of the world?

Italy

Italy was once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, but charts show that daily confirmed cases have gone down from the thousands to the hundreds. The grind was so heavy on emergency medical technician Quintin Cavite, that he said he never experienced a lockdown situation as he was always on the run. The first responder is also an overseas Filipino worker (OFW).

“One of the first problems was the need for more personal protective equipment (PPE), but the government did everything [to] make sure that the PPEs were guaranteed to all frontliners,” he told Rappler via Facebook Messenger.

Cavite said the Italian government also provided increases in regular salaries from €30 to €97 (P1,734 to P5,608), and a bonus ranging from €800 to €1,800 (P46,243 to P104,048) for medical workers – the amount depending on the role. Frontliners were also offered psychological support and intensive courses for specialization.

He said there is a “well-organized” network of collaboration among frontliners, with everyone knowing what their task was. A civil protection department became the lone body responsible for releasing official updates about the pandemic, and so the community was able to avoid confusion over information.

“The Italian government was able to flatten the curve because of clear programs to fight COVID-19. [Forms of government aid] still continue up to the present even if the pandemic issues seem to calm down,” said Cavite.

South Korea

When it came to HCW protection, South Korea’s strategy angled on prevention. A recent study found South Korea was able to maintain low rates of COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers during the first few months of the pandemic.

The study said the Korean government crafted measures to mitigate burnout for its HCWs in line with findings of a China-based report that workers from high-risk departments would be infected if they worked for more than 15 hours a day. 

These measures included putting a cap on 40 hours a week with overtime pay for workers deployed to COVID-19 hot spots like Daegu and Gyeongbok area.

Korea kept HCWs protected through a multi-pronged approach of “centralized coordination, local adaptation of key protocols, and a strong backbone of public health fundamentals (physical distancing, contact tracing, testing, isolation, and treatment).”

“Adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) was foundational, but HCW infection control could not have been successful without a robust system of triage (screening patients) and coordination that increased health system capacity,” according to the study.

United Arab Emirates

As of posting, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has yet to record a daily new increase of cases over 1,000. It has been able to carry out more than 5 million tests among its 9-million population, although it has yet to show a flattened curve.

Joanne Rico, who does marketing and sales for a hospital in Abu Dhabi, said the government from the get-go focused on expanding healthcare capacities to avoid the point of overwhelming the frontliners. Rico said these include testing, insurance coverage, segregation and management of cases, and efficient use of PPE sets.

“This is the beauty of a non-overwhelmed healthcare system. We are not crying for any monetary reward or recognition because we [have felt] the UAE government’s presence in flattening the curve since day one,” said Rico via Facebook Messenger.

Rico also stressed the UAE government’s efforts to curb the mental toll on frontliners and other vulnerable groups. The UAE National Programme for Happiness and Wellbeing launched its “Mental Support Line” in May.

“I think this is a remarkable initiative by the UAE government to support the mental health of vulnerable people during the coronavirus outbreak, especially [since] many residents are becoming extremely concerned, not only [about] their own physical and economic health, but also about the physical and economic conditions of their families back in their home countries,” she said.

New York, US

If New York were a country, it would rank as the 8th country in the world to have the most confirmed coronavirus cases at 421,550 as of August 4. 

New York has an existing law in place that protects workers in times of outbreaks and crises called the Worker’s Compensation Law.

“From diseases like tuberculosis and asbestosis, to the tragedy of 9/11, and to the opioid crisis, the Board has always risen to meet the needs of injured workers across the state. COVID-19 is no exception,” the New York Workers’ Compensation Board’s website says.

The law provides for the following: payment of an injured worker’s medical treatment for a work-related illness or injury, wage replacement benefits if illness prevents work, benefits to an employee’s surviving dependents in the event of a death, and reimbursement of funeral expenses up to $12,500 (P613,000).

Frontliners in New York are also entitled to free mental health services through a hotline.

United Kingdom

The experiences of a nurse in the UK are far from perfect. The British government’s response to the pandemic has long garnered criticism, one of the reasons being its priority placed on maintaining the economy. In the first months, the strategy was to allow the virus to spread to build up the population’s herd immunity. (READ: Working with fear and anxiety: Filipino nurses as UK frontliners vs coronavirus)

“Aside from scrapping the debt of the National Health Service, nothing was directly [provided to] nurses. [The government] gave pay raises to doctors, police, armed forces, and teachers, but not nurses. We were so disappointed with that,” said Filipino nurse Rodnie Oro in a Whatsapp conversation with Rappler.

However, Oro said it was the British community that filled in the gaps of support they looked for in government. Restaurants gave free food, businesses gave discounts, and ride-hailing service Uber provided free rides for frontliners. Groups also gathered donations to provide PPE sets to nursing homes and small hospitals.

“That was great motivation for us frontliners to get up in the morning [and help] our patients fight the virus, even though we know we are at risk as well,” he said. – Rappler.com