Abhijit Vinodrao Boratne1, Manish Taywade2, Amrit Mishra1. 1. Department of Community Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry, India. 2. Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhubaneswar, Sijua, Patrapada, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Dear Editor,The World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020. The magnitude of the problem was so big that many countries including India were forced to declare lockdowns for many weeks. This period was supposed to be a buffer period to gear up for an unprecedented load of COVID-19 cases that reported various life-threatening issues among affected people including healthcare and frontline workers.[1]
Shortage of Healthcare Workforce
The WHO estimated that majority of low and lower-middle-income countries will face a deficiency of health workers to huge numbers up to 18 million by 2030. Conventionally, many countries have allocated low budgets for healthcare. This insufficient investment has impacted education and employment policies and the quality of healthcare delivery too. There are comparatively less-skilled healthcare workers in rural, remote, and underserved areas. This further worsens the doctor-patient ratio and increases the unmet health needs.[2]
Safety of Healthcare Workers and Expectations
The battle against COVID-19 started with a lack of personal protective equipment, unavailability of medicine, and time constraints among the overburdened healthcare workers.[3] In this unprecedented situation unlike never seen before, the medical professionals gave their best while providing care for patients with COVID-19. To date, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has reported the deaths of 730 doctors across the country during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]Despite serving the patients with COVID-19 with a risk on their own life, the healthcare workers were treated very badly many times. They were abused verbally and physically and chased away from their homes or locality. Many reports of salary reductions in private sectors have also been observed. These all together have caused them a social, economic, and psychological burden. The risks related to their health, well-being, and safety while on and off their duty were accountable for weakening the wellbeing of these health and frontline workers. This deprecating attitude and the pressure from all sides take a toll on the motivation and morale of the healthcare workers, thus declining the efficiency of patient care.[3]The World Health Assembly on May 28, 2021 announced the resolution on the healthcare workforce and strategic directions for nursing and midwifery. It advocates for the guarantee that investments in our workforce must ensure that they are skilled, trained, equipped, supported, and enabled to carry their intended work. It voiced the need for decent pay, appreciation, a safe working environment, and protection of their rights in all countries at any cost.[5]The Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery 2021–2025 has mentioned education, jobs, leadership, and service delivery that will help countries ensure that their nurses and midwives have maximum impact on population health outcomes.[5]
Conclusion
This pandemic has exposed the entire health systems of developed, developing, and underdeveloped countries. The health sector demands its due importance in terms of good infrastructure in the healthcare sector. The planners and public health experts should learn from this experience and work hard to achieve financial stability and infrastructure in near future.