Children of health-care workers left at the back end
WHILE they work assiduously and selflessly on the front line amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, health-care workers say their children are left unseen and unsupervised on the back end.
Various medical practitioners have told the Jamaica
Observer that since March 2020, they have been torn between saving lives and properly raising their children.
Okeem Roberts, a nurse at the University Hospital of the West Indies, told the
Observer that working on the front line during the pandemic has affected the bond he has with his fouryear-old daughter, Okeera.
“I had to send away my daughter based on what is happening, and the fear of me bringing the virus home and then she getting it. I see people dying every day and can’t help them. Sometimes when I am talking to her she a tell me seh she wah see me, but me have work. So, that kinda break the bond,” Roberts said.
He said his daughter, who will be five in June, has been staying with his mother for a while for two reasons — as a safety measure and because he is rarely at home.
“Before the pandemic, she lived with me. I would see her every day and she sees me every day. Now, she is away from me, staying with her grandmother. My mother usually call me and that’s how I get to talk to her [Okeera] sometimes. And she is always saying she wants to come home. Mi just try and visit when mi can.”
But his rare visits usually end in heartbreak.
“When mi visit her and a leave, she always cry. She always want to come home with me. All a entire week me go without seeing my daughter. Sometimes I plan to meet up, and then something comes up,” he said.
In August 2020 Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton underscored complaints from medical practitioners about staff shortage at public health facilities and extended work hours. Tufton said there has been significant and increasing burnout of the critical front- line workers, primarily the health-care staff.
Novelyn Leslie Little, parish manager for Westmoreland Public Health Services, highlighted the fact that all healthcare workers were affected, and not just those on the front line. She told the Observer she hasn’t been able to sufficiently monitor her 12-yearold son, and recently had to seek mental help.
“My phone never goes silent. The calls will come and there are things I must attend to in this pandemic. You have back-office operations as well, and you have to be there – and at times [you also have to be] beside the front-line workers. For vaccination blitz, you are right there with them. You are out there. You can’t be locked away and know what is happening,” said Little.
“I try to ensure that