The Doctor Will See You Now [Non-Fiction]

Chapter 87: The COVID Series

With the influx of potentially infected patients, the strain on isolation beds and wards are greater than ever. Those patients need doctors and nurses. So here comes the introduction of 'Dirty Team, Clean Team' ('DTCT' for the convenience of writing this chapter).

Because we have to treat potentially infected and confirmed infected patients, but also because we are then exposed to them and may get infected (despite all our protective gear, as they aren't 100% protection), we pose a risk to our other colleagues and our family. To manage this, people take turns rotating into 'Dirty Team', usually a period of 4 or 6 weeks, where they solely treat those potential / confirmed cases. They stay in designated accommodations and do not venture out at all during that period. At the end of that period, they are then isolated and do not go to work for another 14 days (this is called the 'washout period'), for observation purposes, in case someone does catch something. After that, they're released to go back onto the general ward. Another group rotates in to become 'Dirty Team'.

'Clean Team' looks after everyone else. Work as usual.

My hospital is small. We have no infectious disease ward, only isolation beds (and a tiny number, at that). So currently the DTCT organising does not affect me (yet). It does affect my nursing colleagues and friends who work in other hospitals. The nurses have to draw straws to decide who is going into Dirty Team first. Everyone has to go; it was just a matter of who goes when.

Some colleagues are newly wed. Some have young children at home.

They're drawing straws to see who will go first to die.

Some hospitals report the straw-drawing outcome as... interesting. Seasoned, senior nurses are last to go. Some people who aren't at work at the time of the draw are informed of their 'random' draw results.

Some colleagues have quit on the spot upon drawing a 'Dirty Team' straw.

To add insult to injury, one hospital's nurse revealed that the two week 'washout period' is forcibly deducted from their annual leave instead of being used as part of work. During those two weeks, she cannot go out. She cannot interact physically with the outside world. And she will not be paid.

What insanity is this.

The healthcare head office informs us there is actually no need for a 'washout period' for doctors. This is because, assuming we don the full protective gear, we should not get the virus at all. They tell us this is 100% effective, inferring that if we do end up catching it, it is wholly our fault and we have only ourselves to blame.

This begs the question of why a 'Dirty Team' is even needed if the gear is allegedly so perfect.

Considering healthcare workers still caught Ebola with their spacesuits -- and trust me, our protective gear compared to the Ebola gear is like comparing a piece of paper with a bulletproof vest when facing a pistol -- the comment is just plain insulting.

Naturally, these people who tell us to go die for the greater good with subpar equipment and barebone support are the same people who will never have to step foot in a hospital to work, never mind working with infected patients.