The Syndicate-100 Association of Independent Outlets reported the first results of the First Journalistic Aid Project. On May 22, Novaya Gazeta published an article about the problems of medical workers who work hard, become sick, infect their loved ones, and die.
The article tells the stories of two general physicians from Mytishchi and Balashikha and a paramedic of the Abinsk CDH of the Krasnodar Krai. All of them expressed concerns about possible repressions of the upper-level hospital staff, so they agreed to talk to journalists only anonymously.
Heroes of the stories told that some medical workers feared for themselves and their lives, so they refused to work in the "red zone", many of them were quitting. Other health workers are getting the virus — because of this, the duty of a particular doctor who continues working increases dramatically.
All three believe that they were given less protective equipment than is necessary during the epidemic. According to one of the heroines of the article, coronavirus is a natural disaster and it is possible that it was really impossible to get totally prepared to it.
According to the doctor, hospital management and officials could have played honestly and tried to explain the situation to doctors, to understand those who fear for their lives and do not want to work with patients with COVID-19 — they could have been ordered to consult online instead of being fired.
— And mass casualties among doctors were not caused by the lack of PPE as much as by overwork and physical exertion. You cannot work in this clothing for 12 hours straight in a room with the highest concentration of the virus and in a state of continuous emotional stress, without proper food, drink, rest! They say that we are working in warlike circumstances, and deaths were inevitable. But there have been too many absurd deaths, a lot of things that were unreasond, - said a district doctor from Mytishchi.
The first results of the First Journalistic Aid Project are that journalists have sent a request for an interview with the Head of the Ministry of Health of Russia Mikhail Murashko, so he could answer the questions that concern health workers.
If a doctor faces a problem that the upper-level hospital staff refuses to solve, he or she can contact the First Journalistic Aid Project (anonymously as well). Journalists participating in the Syndicate-100 Project will send requests to the authorities, try to solve the problem, and control its solution.
