Medical professionals and Healthcare providers are getting their pay cut while dealing with COVID-19

Some doctors are seeing fewer patients, and therefore making less, but as @renato pointed out above, they are in the same position as other businesses. The provinces are not cutting the amount paid per visit.

Cutting the salaries of front-line professionals fighting COVID-19 is unique to the US for-profit system.

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I do hope I’m not coming off as not appreciating the hardships of these workers, the ridiculousness of their situation, or being argumentative.

I’m just attempting to add some context. When your earnings are down 50 to 99% it still hurts. Especially for those who are just starting their careers. And perhaps I’m a bit grumpy as a result :wink:

Another group to not forget are Nurses. Many work at multiple sites to get hours. With single site restrictions getting shifts is harder (particularly for the junior ones with less seniority). So yes they earn the same per hour, but they are mandated to less opportunities for hours.

Unfortunately while this is hard (not the article case, the ones I am mentioning) for those affected it’s what is necessary for now. And all are just doing their best to keep the system running and keep their patients as healthy as possible. Really a big concern is those patients who are not seeking help for their non COVID problems. They still need care, and it cant always wait indefinitely.

Stay Home. Flatten the curve and let’s all work together to get through this!

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…because it’s a pandemic and a lot of services are not active. I have an elective surgery that’s probably going to be pushed back a year. My surgeon won’t make any money and I won’t get the procedure done. That’s life in an international emergency. Hospital staff in Canada are still working and still being paid.

This is stupid, it’s a crime, and will be one of the things that craters the US as a nation.

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Well, at least the professional classes might start sympathizing with the shit-show that has become paid labor. They’re getting the stick from the investor class now as well.

The only way that this system changes is when the vast majority of working people, professionals included, start saying no. The upper middle class has so far been acquiescent.

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My friends’ hospital is sending ER nurses home partway through their shift if patient volumes are low (my hospital would never do that, of course, bc we have a huge Jesus statue and love all people). The charge nurses are expected to evaluate patient numbers every two hours, and “flex” nurses home. The nurses get to use their accrued sicktime/vacation time to keep their salaries up - which they also have to use if they get Covid on the job, despite a lack of proper PPE. But don’t worry - they are also making plans for mandatory overtime for the exact same staff members.

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This seems like it is leaning awfully hard on the professionalism of the medical staff in question.

We don’t use the term “essential” because it sounds nice, we use it because “it would be very bad if they decided to stop doing their thing”. Which they could do, especially when the thanks-for-saving-us-at-unnecessarily-high-risk-to-yourselves-because-we-don’t-stock-PPE ‘bonus’ is a rather insulting -20%.

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