41pc healthcare workers faced verbal, physical violence battling COVID-19: Report.

ISLAMABAD -- A study conducted with the collaboration of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday said that over 41 per cent of health-care workers in three cities of Pakistan faced some form of verbal and physical violence while battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was conducted by APPNA Institute of Public Health (Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi), University of Lahore and Khyber Medical University with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The study surveyed 356 healthcare workers, including, doctors, paramedics and laboratory technicians, from 24 healthcare facilities in Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar.

'There is an erosion of trust between patients and healthcare workers in Pakistan,' said Dr. Mirwais Khan, who heads the Health Care in Danger (HCiD) initiative of the ICRC. 'We needed to see if COVID-19 was making it worse.'

The study, conducted in May and June of 2020 during the peak of the first wave of the coronavirus in Pakistan, showed that 41.9 per cent participants experienced violence during their COVID-19 response, with six percent reporting physical assault. The study defined acts of violence to include verbal and physical assault, as well as stigma and ostracization from patients and their families. A third of those interviewed reported being falsely accused of causing injury or death to patients. A medical registrar at a hospital in Karachi said it was 'demoralising' to face a 'barrage of insults' while on duty.

Among the recommendations of the study to change attitudes about health workers are tackling misinformation on social media, creating stronger support for healthcare staff at work when dealing with psychological stress, training them on better communication with patients and their attendants, and de-escalating violence.

The reasons that led to development of violence in hospitals also included demand of the attendants to hand over dead bodies immediately and not to mention COVID-19 as cause of death. A...