Woes of a healthcare worker: 'We frequently fall ill due to our heavy load of work'

Long working hours and manpower woes have taken their toll on healthcare workers, especially after Covid-19 hit Singapore.

The extreme stress healthcare workers have experienced has made headlines over the past couple of years but according to one worker, circumstances have not gotten any better.

A Stomper, who is a patient information associate at a call centre, wanted to share her own experience with Stomp:

"I would like to share the stress levels I have been facing in the medical line for almost nine years.

"Being in the medical line has never been easy and Covid-19 made our work life more miserable.

"Time and effort can never be explained.

"We work 24/7 and are asked to cover when colleagues go on urgent leave or medical leave at the last minute.

"We frequently fall ill due to our heavy load of work.

"We also always have people resigning and upper management changes managers frequently.

"One of our weekends is usually 'burned', or even both.

"Otherwise, we need to be on standby mode to cover for our colleagues.

"We can't even plan ahead for leave during our own festive season.

"Even now as the Covid-19 situation has eased, we still cannot plan leave and the hospital holds our leave which can only be approved at the last minute.

"I feel like I've never been appreciated by management.

"I applied for leave last November because I planned for a long holiday and wanted to book my air tickets during the promotion period.

"However, they will only inform me it is approved when they manage to find someone to cover for me because if two people apply for leave, they cannot approve it."