ATHENS, Greece (PA) – Dressed from head to toe in protective equipment, doctors and nurses gather around the patient, struggling to keep the man affected by the coronavirus alive.
Right behind them, unnoticed and unheard, a worker with the same protective equipment performs a completely different task: disinfecting surfaces, collecting waste in biohazard bags, discreetly entering beds and life support machines to wipe the floor.
Coronavirus intensive care unit cleaning products have a daily risk of infection to ensure that ICUs function smoothly and are essential to prevent the spread of disease in hospitals. But their status as unskilled workers in a backstage role left them out of the public eye.
While medical staff are praised around the world for their life-saving work during the pandemic, cleaners are rarely mentioned.
They feel “like the smallest gears in the wheel, as no one considers us,” said one shortly before beginning the thorough process of putting on protective equipment to enter an intensive care unit at the hospital. of chest diseases Sotiria in Athens, the main treatment center COVID-19 in Greece.
She and her colleagues said they were treated well by the medical staff and praised the team spirit of the hospital. Cleaning agents were also included with medical workers in the first wave of coronavirus vaccinations. But beyond the gates of the hospital, she said, the predominant attitude toward cleaners is “I haven’t seen you, I don’t know you.”
The contempt of some people for cleanliness is so great that the mother of two children, aged 50, asked to be identified only by her initials, AB, because some relatives do not know about her job.
“They will perceive it as inferior, the fact that I am cleaner,” she said. Some relatives questioned the risk of working in a COVID-19 intensive care unit and the danger of transmitting the virus to her family, so she avoided telling them what she was doing for a living.
Georgia Tsiolou, who, like AB, began working in Sotiria in January 2020, a few months before the pandemic hit Greece, said authorities often talk about hiring more medical staff and offering bonuses and fixed-term contracts. long for nurses and doctors. But “for us, it’s nothing.”
Because they all have one-year contracts, the cleaners don’t know if they will have a job after December.
“People are just talking about doctors and nurses. Of course, it is good to talk about doctors and nurses, because they are the ones who are fighting the biggest battle “against the pandemic,” said colleague Anna Athanassiou, 55. “But with them, we are. We may not know how to heal a person, but we help a lot in our way with our work. We are a chain. Our work, I believe, is absolutely necessary. ”
Medical experts agree, stressing how vital cleaning is.
“I can’t separate her from medical work or medical care. It’s just as important, “said Antonia Koutsoukou, a professor of pulmonology in intensive care, noting infection control, a major problem in hospitals and especially in intensive care. Koutsoukou is the director of the respiratory disease clinic at the University of Athens in Sotiria.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the hospital’s infectious disease experts trained cleaning agents in the use of protective equipment. Now experienced cleaners are learning new recruits.
For ICU’s newest cleaning agent, Theodoros Grivakos, wearing the equipment was a struggle. Includes a mask, goggles and visor, a hooded suit, double gloves glued to the wrists and plastic wrap glued over the legs.
“I was a little scared,” the 28-year-old admitted in the middle of his first intensive care shift. “I was getting dressed. I was dizzy. I felt pressure. I did not feel good. ”
A graduate of electrical engineering, Grivakos took over the cleaning service when he could not find work in the chosen field. After being initially assigned to the hospital’s outdoor park areas, the sudden transition to ICU was a shock.
Working in an intensive care unit, which is “an environment with stress and high emotional pressure,” is different from any other job, Koutsoukou said.
Cleaners work in the immediate vicinity of patients who could die suddenly, she said. “Therefore, they are also called to arm themselves with great emotional force and calm and to understand the importance of their role in caring for the seriously ill.”
Some of the cleaning agents said they were not prepared for the psychological tax of the workplace, especially since the isolation of COVID-19 patients, who cannot receive visitors, often led them to form links with hospital staff, including cleaning.
“It’s very exciting when you’re there. It is difficult “, said Tsiolou.
The beginning of the pandemic was particularly harsh. Faced with a new virus that doctors knew little about, the cleaners were terrified of getting sick or taking the virus home. Many have stayed away from their families or reduced contact to a minimum.
For some, the fear and stress turned out to be too great.
“There were many people who were called to work and did not come because they were afraid,” Tsiolou said. Many of her colleagues resigned, leaving cleaners with fewer staff.
Those who have remained despite the risks say they hope for some recognition of their critical role.
“People always think our sector is inferior,” said Athanassiou, who said she was saddened by public indifference. But the medical staff, she said, understood.
“I know we’re just like them,” she said. “We are in exactly the same danger, we are no different.”
Grivakos compared attitudes toward cleaners to the treatment of the ancient Greeks against the Elots, a subjugated population of Sparta.
“I’m not talking about the (cleaning) staff because (we) are elots,” he said. “(We) are spent, because in one year you are here and in the next you may not be.”