With the number of assaults on healthcare workers amid the coronavirus pandemic growing, nurses and doctors have been warned not to wear their uniforms and hide their IDs in public.
Dozens of nurses have recently reported being spat at, yelled at, and even called things like ‘disease spreaders’ while on their way home from work.
As 33-year-old Sama Shali from Manchester revealed, she was on her way home from The Christie Hospital when a stranger approached her and spat in her face following a 10-hour shift.
According to Shali, she was wearing her ID badge when the man, who was on his bike, confronted her.
“He said something to me and I took my earphones out to hear what he said. I asked him if he could give me some space as he was quite close to me and then he spat in my face,” she explained.
“I was so shocked and I told him I was going to ring the police. He just started circling me on his bike and then he did it again – he spat at my face again.”
As the nurse added, she feels grateful to female bystanders who rushed to her aid and helped her get rid of the attacker.
“I am scared he might have had coronavirus and wanted to spread it. Now I am scared that I could pass it on to my colleagues or patients. We are short-staffed and I am scared of the impact it will have on my team if I become ill,” Sama said.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, similar incidents have been frequently reported across Britain, leading the authorities to advise health workers to hide their badges and uniforms while not at work.
According to the UK trade union of Royal College of Nursing, plenty of nurses have reported being spat at and called names following their long shifts at hospitals.
“I am speaking up for nurses and nursing in every possible setting. Today I hear from community nurses that they are being heckled at and verbally abused in the street and called ‘disease spreaders,’” the trade union’s director of policy, Susan Masters, revealed. “This is abhorrent behavior it must stop.”
As Masters expressed, health workers are crucial to society and many people now need them more than ever.
“They are going in to see patients and caring for them when everyone else is keeping their distance,” the director added in an interview with Independent.
“The public need to understand that nurses are socially critical and right now society needs us more than ever.”
Confirming the allegations was also Ruth May, the country’s chief nursing officer, who claimed that similar stories involving the abuse of nurses are circulating online.
“I’ve seen all over Twitter some of our nurses and midwives and care staff being spat at and being abused by member[s] of the public. Please be very kind to your nurses and midwives because you may need them very soon,” May said in an interview with BBC Breakfast.
One of the nurses who openly revealed that she was abused was Reizel Angela who got physically assaulted while on her way to the hospital where she works.
“Yesterday I was racially abused by a couple at the train station on my way to a night shift at the hospital. A man elbowed my rib, intentionally pushing me to the side, the female partner then shouted racial abuse saying: ‘at least we are whites you f***ing c***,’” Angela said.
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Replaced!