BACOLOD City – Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran expressed his dismay over the supposed discrimination of hospital and health workers from the local community just because they are at the frontlines of the efforts to battle the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This was after a group of the employees of the RMC asked the intervention of the provincial government of Negros Occidental due to the discrimination they have been getting. “Indi sila dapat pag i-discriminate kay kon ma burnout na sila kag kon magmasakit wala na sang may matatap pa sang pasyente sa ospital,” stressed Familiaran, who chairs the local inter agency taskforce against the viral disease. In a letter made by Riverside Medical Center (RMC) Corporate Communications head Chuck Estrella and addressed to Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, some of their employees were denied rides by pedicab or jeepney drivers after the first COVID-19 positive patient was admitted at the facility. Coffee shops also reportedly denied entry for RMC medical staff and some were even verbally harassed by police officers. They also received reports that some landlords and neighbors of these medical workers are ordering their staff to vacate the premises fearing possible contamination. “After all the sacrifices they make, including risking their lives, this is what we expect them to face?” Estrella questioned. In another letter made by Dr. Connie Rose Benjamin of the Philippine College of Physicians-Negros Occidental, she urged Lacson to intervene over the matter pointing out not all medical personnel in the said hospital have been exposed to the COVID-19 positive patient. She pointed out that even before the patient tested positive for the illness, the patient had already been placed in an isolation room, and the medical staff who did get exposed are already on quarantine. Benjamin further pointed out that the public should discriminating medical workers, as they also need mental and emotional support. According to Familiaran the RMC should find a way to solve the problem of their employees by providing them transportation, a quarters for the night shift personnel. He said that the city has several buses of the Vallacar Transit Inc. but they being utilized to transport frontliners of the city government deployed at check points around the city./PN
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