Arab News
JEDDAH, Feb 29: A number of Saudi nurses who were going door to door as part of a recent polio vaccination campaign have come forward to complain of abuse from members of the public.
“Instead of being welcomed with open arms and a smile as community social workers we were met by physical and verbal abuse,” one of the nurses told Arab News, fighting back her tears. She added that some people refused to open their doors, while others cursed them and threw shoes at them.
“People simply would not believe that we were with the Ministry of Health and were there to help, even after we showed them our official identification cards,” said another nurse, adding that people also accused them of being crooks and thieves.
The seven-day polio campaign, which kicked off on Saturday, was started as an annual campaign by the Ministry of Health to try and keep the Kingdom polio-free, said Dr. Khaled Mirghalani, spokesman for the Ministry of Health. Mirghalani added that he did not know anything about the accusations of abuse.
One health worker said not all families were welcoming. “A medical student whose door we knocked at was very aggressive. She stared at us and asked for our ID cards. Although we provided her with our ID cards she still doubted us,” she said. On another occasion, the health worker wrote a complaint to the husband of a woman who insulted her. She gave the note to the doorkeeper to give to the woman’s husband.
The nurses told Arab News that they felt the Ministry of Health had not advertised the campaign well enough and that members of the public had not been informed to cooperate with health workers when they visit. “The ministry should have advertised in newspapers and on television or distributed brochures and pamphlets at clinics and hospitals to inform the public of the campaign,” said one nurse.
The nurses added that they felt that people had given them the cold shoulder due to reports in local newspapers of police arresting criminals impersonating government officials.
The local press has recently reported how impersonators — possessing counterfeit licenses, ID cards, iqamas and passports — had gained access into people’s homes to rob them.
“People don’t know who to trust anymore,” said Marwa Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi mother of six. “Especially when there has been no notification or advertisement informing citizens of the door-to-door vaccination campaign, people are going to be reluctant to open their doors or participate in such activities. They would simply be too afraid, “ she said.
Other citizens said that it was wrong for the ministry to send nurses door-to-door and that it would be more organized and socially acceptable to arrange for nurses to visit local schools.
“I think the Ministry of Health should have launched the vaccination program by obtaining parental permission through letters sent home from schools instructing them that their child would be immunized for polio on certain days and instructing them to take children under school age to local clinics to be vaccinated,” said Haitham, a father of three.
One nurse said the campaign’s timing — from 2.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. — is inconvenient for most families. “This is the time when people come from work to have lunch. We get embarrassed while going to them in the middle of their lunch.”
The nurses told Arab News that they have refused to make more home visits but their manager, who they would not identify out of fear of being reprimanded, told them that the cases of abuse were only a few and that they should continue visiting homes until the campaign ends.
“We really don’t know what to do, we’re afraid to make visits and we’re scared of getting fired,” said another nurse. “I’m thankful that this campaign ends next week but there will be future vaccination campaigns. I just hope that the ministry will read our story and better organize programs to come,” she added.