Healthcare workers protests ‘should not come at the expense of patients’: WHO official urges
Industrial actions by health workers around the world “should not come at the expense of the health and wealth of patients”, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Director Mike Ryan.
Ryan made the remarks on Friday at a media briefing on COVID-19, where he noted that in some instances healthcare workers faced challenges in their efforts, and called upon governments to ensure the workers are taken care of in order to enable them serve patients.
“It is very tough for health workers to continue to operate when they do not have the appropriate PPEs or they are not receiving payments that can feed their families. So, it is equally important that governments focus on ensuring that frontline health workers have adequate pay, adequate conditions, adequate safety They are our heroes. They are in the front lines,” said Ryan.
“But it is also important that those workers too recognize that they have to put in place, if they are taking action, they also have a moral duty to their patients as well. So, any action that are taken by health workers to protests – and protests are something that everyone should be able to do – but they should not come at the expense of the health and wealth of patients.”
The WHO Executive Director’s remarks came as some countries are experiencing health worker protests amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the countries that have been hit by protests include Kenya, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As of Friday, the number of COVID-19 infections globally had surpassed 22.7 million with a death toll exceeding 794,000, according to figures from the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
In his remarks on Friday, Ryan also responded to a question on corruption hampering health efforts globally.
“We’ve seen the best of people in this response and in this pandemic and we have certainly seen the worst of people. Certainly, corruption is not something that is new to the world. At this point it is really important that governments govern and that we see very clear transparent actions by governments,” he said.
