Myanmar one of 'most dangerous places' for health workers, NGOs warn

Myanmar has become “one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a health worker,” an NGO leader has warned on the one-year anniversary of a coup that saw the country’s military take over the government.

Global health campaigners say health care workers, particularly doctors, are being targeted by the military because of their status within communities and the role of many doctors in organizing resistance to the coup of Feb. 1, 2021.

At least 31 health workers have been killed in Myanmar in the past 12 months, and at least 284 have been arrested, according to Physicians for Human Rights, amid escalating violence across the country. The monitor also recorded 113 raids on hospitals.

“Since the coup, health care [in Myanmar] has been under a lot of stress because of the civil disobedience of government doctors,” said Dr. Sonny Aung, a general practitioner originally from Myanmar who now resides in the U.K., having worked in the National Health Service for 39 years.

Aung, who spoke to Devex at a demonstration outside the houses of Parliament marking the first anniversary of the military takeover, has been involved in training Myanmar’s health care workers over Zoom. The guidance, organized by the Tropical Health and Education Trust, has ranged from primary care training to dealing with trauma injuries sustained in protests. THET has also funded some medical equipment being sent to Myanmar.

Many nurses have left the cities and returned to their families’ villages, only to find themselves the most senior health care personnel and “completely out of their depth,” THET Chief Executive Ben Simms told Devex. That led to around 3,000 nurses joining THET online training sessions, he added.

THET, an NGO that organizes training partnerships for health care workers around the world, has worked with health personnel in Myanmar for many years and decided to “lean in” to the challenge of assisting them after the coup, according to Simms. “We felt we had to do something,” he said.

“It is totally unacceptable that Myanmar has become one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a health worker,” added Simms. “We’ve seen the systematic persecution of health workers. It’s an absolute tragedy.”

“Doctors, and teachers, have a lot of respect in the community, and the military fear doctors because they have been at the forefront of resistance [to the coup],'' said Aung. “Any form of organized health care workers are viewed with suspicion.”

While individual doctors working alone are mostly ignored by the military, general practitioners working together in charitable clinics can be “targeted and disrupted” by the authorities, sending “some GPs into hiding,” said Aung. “Patients are being looked after at home, not in hospital,” Aung added.

“As doctors, our job is to care for people and heal the sick. The least we can expect is not to be killed,” said Dr. Mo Aye, a doctor born in Myanmar who now works as a consultant physician in the U.K.

“I know friends who have been arrested, others are in hiding, and I know of people who have been killed,” he added. “I want to see the U.K. government continue to put on diplomatic pressure.”

Nigel Crisp, who co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, praised the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, which recently announced sanctions against members of the military rulers.

“The U.K. government has been doing a lot; we need that to keep going. This will not be solved overnight,” Crisp told Devex.

The decline in national health care has been accompanied by an increasingly difficult working environment for NGOs operating in the country amid staffing, logistical, and security challenges. Save the Children said two of its workers were killed by security forces in December.

Devex has contacted a representative of the Myanmar government for comment.