Support staff for the activities of medical clinics and hospitals are essential to maintaining and improving the quality of medical services offered to the population, in increasingly difficult circumstances.
And yet, the people who answer the phone calls, the receptionists, the assistants, the billing agents and all the support staff to the doctors and nurses are on the front line and exposed to more and more numerous and pressing requests from frustrated patients. by the collapse of the health system. Uncivil, intolerant, even aggressive or violent behavior is on the increase in hospitals and medical clinics.
The media regularly talk about doctors, nurses and other carers, many of whom have left the profession since the start of the pandemic, but the crucial role played by support staff is ignored. So they quit and retrain too, compounding the shortage of existing staff to support what is still left of our unfortunate, failing healthcare system.
Frequently cited reasons are too low salaries, in the face of an exploding cost of living, the impossibility of working from home in many professions, and the violence resulting from chronic exposure to the frustrations of burnt-out patients and doctors. different stages of burnout.
When other industries raise wages and improve working conditions to make up for understaffing, and the healthcare system doesn’t keep up, it’s hard for these burnt-out people not to say “enough!” “.
An improvement in the situation of health care provision cannot be achieved without an improvement in the working conditions of support staff for health professionals.
Without the support of such essential health care workers, the exodus of doctors and nurses will continue.
Who will remain then to take care of you?
It is urgent to value these people who contribute in an invaluable way to the delivery of health care to the population.
Patients and doctors, the next time you walk in or talk to someone trying to help you in a medical clinic or hospital, smile and thank them for their work.
Without it, there will soon be no medical clinic and you will be talking to a machine. Hoping it’s not already too late.