translated from Spanish: La Perla Hospital, in Neza, warns of sanctioning anyone who refuses to work

On April 20, doctors at the General Hospital La Perla de Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico, received a memorandum informing them that all health personnel “have the obligation and professional, legal and social duty” to continue working, and are warned that if they refuse they could have even criminal sanctions. 
The notice came 11 days after special guard personnel went into work for more than three hours and two weeks of demonstrations due to lack of protective equipment to deal with COVID-19 cases at the hospital. 
The memorandum, signed by the director, Martín Rosales Bahena, explains that if the staff refused to work it tended as “a consequence of the initiation of legal proceedings and administrative, civil, labor and criminal sanctions”. 
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In an interview with Political AnimalRosales Bahena explained that the country is facing a health emergency that demands the “historic commitment of responsibility and professional ethics” to ensure the care of patients who require it. 
He said, appealing to the solidarity of medical personnel but “in the event that there was a reluctance of workers to participate” – and to guarantee human resources – is that he issued that warning document. 
Legal sustenment, the document states, it is section 468 of the General Health Law which warns that “the professional, technical or auxiliary of the disciplines for health, who without legitimate cause refuses to perform the functions or services requested by the health authority in exercise of the extraordinary action in matters of general health, shall be applied to him from six months to three years in prison and fine for the equivalent of five to fifty days of the minimum general wage in force in the economic area concerned”.
It also has as its livelihood the Political Constitution, the Federal Labour Law and the Penal Code of Mexico City, although the hospital is located in the State of Mexico. 
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Rosales Bahena assured that at the moment there is no sanction because all the staff are participating, but if required, “there will be an instance that defines and articulates such actions”. 
Although it stated that this memorandum derives from the guidelines of the Health Council, the body composed of federal health authorities and headed by the President, the President does not provide for the imposition of criminal, labor or administrative sanctions on health personnel who decided not to work. 
Health workers in La Perla protested with banners on the hospital esplanade on March 26 to demand the necessary protective equipment to care for patients with coronavirus and prevent an outbreak of contagion as has happened in other noocomys. 
Employee fear increased following the death of the hospital’s head of emergency on April 9 from coronavirus that was complicated by his diabetes. According to the Mexican State Health Secretariat, the doctor contracted coronavirus on a trip he made to Cuba in the first week of March. 
However, a hospital doctor who asked for anonymity said the emergency chief arrived well from his journey and began to develop symptoms until April, so employees suspect that he became infected in the hospital as they began receiving suspicious patients from March without the staff having the necessary protective equipment. 
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Another staff member said the protests worked because they have already been handed over equipment, and they expect it to be permanent, as long as the robes and head covers are disposable. And now in addition to fear of contagion, they are now afraid of reprisals with this threat.  
The hospital director said he has given the authorities “documentary evidence that the supplies were counted and counted for patient care.”
Meanwhile, the secretary of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Deputies, Monica Bautista Rodríguez, asked the Governor of the State of Mexico, Alfredo del Mazo and the Secretary of Health of the entity, Gabriel J. O’Shea Cuevas, to “respect, support and protect doctors, in addition to guaranteeing their human and labor rights; stop harassing them, frighten them and threaten them.” 
“Doctors are required to provide their services but not above their personal safety, if they do not have the conditions of hygiene and protective equipment they cannot be forced to comply with these guidelines, now health personnel in addition to receiving assaults from some people are also assaulted by their own managers,” he said in a press release.
 
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Original source in Spanish