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When a priest arrives at a hospital in Chorzow to carry out the final rites, nurse Mariusz Strug can see the concern in dying sufferers’ eyes. “After the sacrament, they knew what was occurring,” he mentioned.
However there have been no psychologists accessible to supply any comfort to the sufferers. Mr. Strug and one other nurse would attempt to supply some sort phrases, however they have been strained to the restrict caring for 60 sufferers of their COVID-19 ward.
“Folks come to us and so they need us nurses to carry out a miracle,” he mentioned.
Exhausted from working in such an understaffed system, he’s amongst a gaggle of well being care staff who’ve come to Warsaw from throughout Poland for an around-the-clock protest exterior the prime minister’s workplace that has gone on for practically two weeks.
After a 12 months and a half of the pandemic, and with Poland on the cusp of a fourth surge of COVID-19 infections, nurses, medical doctors, ambulance drivers and different well being care staff have come to induce Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and different authorities to make deep reforms to the well being care system, arguing that it’s at risk of collapse.
“The pandemic confirmed us how dangerous the well being care system is,” mentioned Gilbert Kolbe, a nurse and spokesman for the protest motion. “That is the final probability to do one thing earlier than will probably be too late. We received’t have the ability to avert a disaster coming in 5, ten years.”
Whereas well being care staff throughout the 27-nation European Union have been examined by the pandemic, Poland confronted that check with fewer medical doctors and nurses than most. In keeping with OECD statistics, Poland has the bottom variety of working medical doctors in proportion to its inhabitants — simply 2.4 to 1,000 inhabitants in contrast with 4.5 in Germany. Poland additionally has solely 5 nurses to 1,000 inhabitants, under the EU common of 8 and much under richer nations like Germany, which has 14.
Poland’s well being care sector has been strapped for sources for many years, a state of affairs not rectified by a collection of governments on the left, the centre or now the fitting.
The issues have been exacerbated by the 1000’s of medical doctors, nurses and others who left Poland for greater paid work in Western Europe after the nation joined the EU in 2004.
Of the medical professionals who’ve stayed in Poland, many have additionally left the general public sector for better-paying jobs within the non-public sector, leaving fewer to take care of the poorest individuals, mentioned Mr. Kolbe, a 25-year-old who left a public hospital to work for a personal medical firm however hopes to return to the general public system someday.
He mentioned 5,500 individuals full their nursing research on common every year in Poland, however solely about 2,500 go to work within the public system.
A few of these protesting say they’re merely exhausted. With wages low, some work multiple medical job to assist themselves.
Alicja Krakowiecka, a 56-year-old nurse from the southern metropolis of Czestochowa, mentioned her hospital is so short-staffed that in the course of the peak of the pandemic she would typically start her day at 6 a.m. solely to be requested to remain on as a result of the night time nurse was sick. She was then left alone with 30 sufferers for a 24-hour shift. As an alternative of getting two days off she could be requested to return the subsequent night.
“Do you refuse?” she requested, explaining that she agreed to the exhausting shifts out of a way of obligation.
The protest started on Sept. 11, when tens of 1000’s from throughout Poland marched via Warsaw. Some stayed on in tents and held every day press conferences and lectures.
Final weekend the protesters have been deeply shaken when a 94-year-old man who had been stopping by and giving them candies killed himself a number of toes away. A shot rang out throughout a information convention and the medics rushed in the direction of the person, however could not assist him.
Since then they’ve protested silently, forgoing information conferences.
Amid the stress of the protests, and with talks between well being care unions and the federal government occurring for weeks, Mr. Morawiecki introduced on Tuesday that an extra 1 billion zlotys ($254 million) could be allotted this 12 months to salaries and training within the well being care sector.
As well as, Well being Minister Adam Niedzielski mentioned on Wednesday that he had agreed to pay paramedics extra.
Nonetheless, the group organising the protests mentioned the remainder of the well being care group was not happy, which means extra talks between the federal government and the protesters are deliberate.
Kamila Maslowska, a medical pupil, stopped by the protest tents with some associates on Tuesday to point out her solidarity.
“I do know two further languages fluently, aside from Polish, so I believe I may discover a job overseas,” she mentioned “(However) I’d not like to go away. I would love one thing to alter for the higher.”
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