The healthcare industry is in constant need of resources. With Covid-19, the point has never been any clearer.

Many countries have been faced with the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as goggles, gowns and even masks. In extreme cases, some medical professionals have had to disregard basic infection control to prolong the use of their equipment. 

While Singapore has sufficient supplies of PPE, it’s always nice to donate essentials most important to frontline workers to help them fight the battle. You can help by donating masks, sanitizers and any other medical supplies by contacting individual hospitals, or passing the items to Contribute.sg. 

Alternatively, you can also make monetary donations on Giving.sg, like to Home Nursing Foundation, or make appointments to donate blood at blood banks islandwide. 

Sometimes it’s the little things that count. Gestures to show your appreciation, like by gifting a meal on WhyQ can go a long way, especially for those who can hardly afford a break to take care of others. 

If you have friends or family members in the field, you can also have their favourite meals sent to them via delivery platforms to show your support, or coordinate with them to treat other frontliners they work alongside with. These acts don’t have to be big to make a huge difference, so consider also helping a healthcare worker pay for a cup of coffee when you’re in the same line, or simply thanking them for their efforts when you see them.

You might’ve seen posts on Facebook or Instagram highlighting the sacrifices that healthcare professionals have made, and they’re not for nothing. Not only do these words spread much needed awareness, they also acknowledge and encourage exhausted doctors and nurses to brave through another day for the community. 

A surge in these tributes happened after nurses in uniform were said to be discriminated and shunned by the public. According to this Asiaone report, nurses had their private hire rides cancelled, were ostracised and verbally humiliated by members of the public when taking trains and buses while in their uniforms or even sharing a lift.

(In our own conversations with nurses we know, one of them said she’s afraid to even sneeze in public, feeling paranoid that someone would snap a photo of her.)

One initiative that came from it is #braveheartsSG, led by Facebook crowdsourcing platform Stand Up For Singapore. It featured thank you notes penned to frontline medical personnel for their compassion and bravery.

Much of helping the healthcare workers with the worsening Covid-19 situation is by doing our part to not add on unnecessary stressors. This means listening to the advice issued by the government, for instance by refraining from panic buying – which may in turn lead to a shortage of not only groceries, but also medical supplies. Practising good personal hygiene and social distancing will also help avoid overwhelming healthcare workers who are already dealing with a large number of patients to tend to. 

It is also important to keep an eye out for fake news and misinformation that may provide a false sense of security. Instead, get official updates from sites like gov.sg, or from the Ministry of Health here.

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The only one way to reduce people-to-people contact to get the virus under control altogether is to stay home. While only ‘strongly advised’, Singaporeans should practise autonomy and hunker down to prevent community transmission in line with other ‘circuit breaker’ measures introduced last week. This includes tighter safer distancing rules such as taking away food rather than dining in, closing of schools and retailers as well as working from home unless you are an essential services worker, like the healthcare professionals who can’t afford to do so.

All over the world, doctors and nurses have taken to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even Tik Tok to urge people to stay at home with different signs that share the same message – “We stayed at work for you, you stay at home for us.”

Though short and sweet, it drives as a strong reminder that this is the most effective way to flatten the curve in order for our healthcare workers to deal with the capacity of patients. 

In a way, we are now the frontliners in stopping the spread of the virus within our community – and staying home is the one way to protect the doctors and nurses who fight head-on with the virus everyday.

Let’s stay #sgunited!

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Text: Cherrie Lim