NSW's health minister has slammed the behaviour of some Australians following reports healthcare workers have been physically and verbally abused amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“I want all of us as a community to make it clear to that small minority your behaviour is completely unacceptable,” NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
“When you see that person in a uniform in a hospital might be actually putting a tube down your throat to keep you alive, you will wish you hadn't actually done what you did previously.”
“I’m appalled. I think every right-minded member of our community would be that our doctors and nurses are being targets for these people who don’t seem to get it,” Mr Hazzard said.
NSW Minister for Heath Brad Hazzard has deplored reports of public abuse against healthcare workers. Source: AAP
The minister's comments have followed reports doctors and nurses in NSW have been spat on in the streets, assaulted on public transport and yelled at in grocery stores, with some accusing them of “spreading” the virus.
Their colleagues in Queensland have reported being coughed at and even egged on their way to work, while a Victorian nurse told SBS News she had been verbally abused on the way to her car and called a “disease spreader”.
Hospitals around the country are now warning staff not to wear their uniforms in public so they can get to and from work safely.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation’s Lisa Fitzpatrick said these frontline workers were under enough strain without added abuse from the public.
“There’s enough stress on nurses and midwives and health care workers doing their work without ignorant abusive members of the community, who I hope are in very small numbers,” she said.
The reports come as to protect their families, including cooks, cleaners, doctors and nurses.
