Belgium Prime Minister Sophie Wilm¨¨s received a cold reception from the medical staff at Saint Peter hospital in Brussels during her official visit to the hospital. A video of the medics turning their back to?the convoy has gone viral online.?
Doctors and nurses at Saint-Pierre hospital turned their backs in protest against the government's approach to healthcare amid the pandemic.?
¡°Protest against Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes, hospital St. Pierre in Brussels,¡± tweeted a journalist while sharing a video of the incident. According to a Brussels Times report, the cold reception was in response to the government¡¯s approach towards the medical health care workers amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.??
Their main?complaint was against under-resourcing and official decrees that could force them back to work, Belgian media reported.?
Reports state that 100 people, including nurses, doctors, logistical helpers as well as cleaning and administrative staff, staged the silent protests dubbed as the?¡°guard of dishonor.¡±??
They were also disappointed with reported?budget?cuts and low salaries, and miffed by the government trying to ¡°recruit unqualified staff to provide support to nursing personnel¡± instead of hiring trained professionals, the report stated.??
Prime Minister Wilmes later took to Twitter and spoke about her visit to Saint-Pierre hospital saying ¡°health situation, personal protection, mental load¡± as well as healthcare funding, adding that ¡°no subject was excluded.¡±??
Some government officials slammed the hospital staff for the protest, the Belgium Minister of Energy Marie-Christine Marghem called it a ¡°politicised¡± protest.
According to a Brussels Times report, Federal Minister Marie-Christine Marghem wrote on a since deleted Facebook post, ¡°Some of the hospital staff evidently wished to ruin the sympathy and admiration built up over the past few months with ridiculous actions ¨C like children who have not had what they wanted ¨C that reflect a politicised trade union opposition guided by the left, which has had to be silent until now but aims to exploit this crisis as much as possible,¡± the minister wrote in her post which, however, was no longer visible by midday.
The nation of 12 million has the highest mortality rate among confirmed cases, at 16.4 per cent. And it has the most deaths in terms of its population: 78 deaths per 100,000 people, according to statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University.