COVID-19

COVID testing staff make heartfelt plea to end abuse

With testing on the rise among South Australian locals, so too is the number of abusive encounters experienced by COVID testers.

COVID testing stations across the state are seeing a massive spike in locals coming in for tests following the recent cluster linked to an elderely man at Modbury Hospital, but with the rise in tests, also comes a spike in abuse to those on the front line.

In a Facebook group created to assist the public in finding out what COVID testing sites have what wait times, a frontline COVID testing worker took to the group to express the constant onslaught of abuse themselves, and their colleagues have experienced.

The poster, who chose to be anonymous, outlined the abusive scenarios encountered from people in cars waiting to be tested, and detailed why wait times are as long as they are. The heartfelt plea has seen a number of commenters flooding the post to give thanks to the epic work these workers are doing for our community. The post was as follows:

“Finally climbing into bed after finishing my third 10hr shift for this week!!! The amount of passive aggressive abuse being thrown at testers like myself is fucking rediculous! Stop taking it out on us! Yes it’s not nice sitting in a car for hours, but do you realize that each swab takes 5-10min to do start to finish! And that’s when people arrive prepared and don’t spend an extra 4-5min looking for their cards 😡 People also need to wake up to the fact that some cars have up to 8people in them…….at 5min a person that’s 40min to do that single car. Yes we help each other get through the car faster but that’s still 20min with two testers doing 4people each!!!! We are not machines, we need breaks! So there goes some more time when we need to rotate staff for meals. As our shift gets on we fatigue and slow down aswell. We have to be PERFECT on every single form, document and tube to make sure you get your results. That level of accuracy is fucking exhausting!!!!So before you decide to complain about sitting in your comfortable car where you can read a book, watch a movie or knit with a nice warm heater or blanket, think about the people you are abusing by the way you treat and speak to them. We feel miserable turning people away, but after 10 straight hours of passive abuse we are psychologically exhausted and just want to go home.Keep this in mind when your sitting in that line waiting for a test, a little compassion and respect goes a long way. Goodnight and let tomorrow be a better day for everyone 👍🏻

This is a disappointing turn in an already unfortunate situation for the state, with many likening this to the abuse our paramedics experience on the roads.

To find out more about the useful Facebook group, click here.

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