APRIL 28 is recognised as World Day for Safety and Health at Work by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The theme for 2020: Stop the pandemic – Safety and health at work can save lives, reminds us of the battle all of us are fighting.
The battlefields are in hospitals and the frontliners are healthcare workers.
The battle which started in China last year has become a world war that has spared no region.
It is not man against man, but man against an almost invisible enemy, the SARS-CoV2 that causes Covid-19.
The frontliners are facing immense challenges, working under severe constraints with limited resources to fight the battle.
Many of them are working extended hours in crowded wards and hospitals, with limited access to life-saving equipment and personal protective equipment.
They need support to manage emotional pressure and work overload while balancing other responsibilities like caring for their families and, of course, themselves. And many of them have fallen.
Malaysia has recorded three deaths among healthcare workers, with the recent death, a 32-year-old nurse from a specialist hospital in Muar, who succumbed to Covid-19 infection.
We read of the news of a top New York City doctor who took her own life.
“She tried to do her job, and it killed her,” said the father of Dr Lorna M. Breen, who worked at a Manhattan hospital hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
They are just two among the many and the number will keep rising if we continue to fight a global war as individual countries and not as a united front.
Moving forward we must continue to support our healthcare workers and provide them with all the tools needed to manage the patients and to work in a safe and healthy environment.
ILO director-general Guy Rydee aptly said: “We need special measures to protect the millions of healthcare workers and other workers who risk their own health for us every day.”
On this year’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work, we must not forget those who have sacrificed their life and support those who are still fighting our battle in the frontline.
Dr Victor Hoe
Professor of Occupational and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine
University of Malaya
