My patients in Melbourne tell me how they caught Covid, and the reasons leave me sad and frustrated | Kate Gregorevic

The impact of poverty on health has always been obvious to me, now maybe it will be obvious to everyone else

When I do my ward round on my patients with Covid, I don’t ask them why they aren’t vaccinated. I don’t ask them how they caught Covid. My role is to provide caring, compassionate non-judgmental care. But sometimes people tell me unprompted and the reasons leave me feeling sad and frustrated for the inequality in our health system.

Many of my patients don’t speak much English, and since I am monolingual, we rely on phone calls with family members to help us communicate. We always ask how everyone else in the household is. One patient told me they live with seven people and all have Covid. In our hospital, there are multiple families with more than one person who has been admitted.

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Coronavirus | The Guardian

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