Arizona ER doctor says he was fired for tweeting about coronavirus surge

[SilentPanda]

An emergency-room doctor whose dedication throughout the coronavirus pandemic garnered praise from Joe Biden has claimed he was fired by the Arizona hospital where he worked for tweeting about the outbreak's impact.

Cleavon Gilman told the Arizona Republic he received a call from the Yuma regional medical center on 23 November, less than a day after he shared his frustration online about the state's lack of hospital beds in tweets that went viral. He said hospital authorities told him not to return to work.

"They told me it was because of the tweets and I couldn't believe it, because that was accurate information I posted to inform the citizens of Arizona," he said. "It is a grave injustice and it's not just happening to me. Doctors everywhere are afraid to speak up."

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"Just got to work and was notified there are no more ICU beds in the state of Arizona," he said in a tweet that has since been shared almost 30,000 times.

After getting word of the tweet, Biden called the doctor, telling him "how much he appreciates" his efforts and those of frontline workers across the country.

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Gilman, a former hospital corpsman in Iraq, worked for the facility through a healthcare staffing agency known as Envision Healthcare, moving to Yuma in June after working in New York.

He often used his Twitter profile to amplify healthcare inequities, sharing personal stories and warning against disregarding recommendations aimed at curbing the outbreak.

"All I know is this hospital is trying to crush my voice, they want to silence me and they want to financially hurt me. This is all so wrong," Gilman told the Post.

Gilman is not alone in his plight. Several healthcare workers have spoken out about retaliation from employers.

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Yuma regional medical center, however, maintained Gilman had not been fired, telling the Washington Post in a statement that he was scheduled to return to the emergency room over the weekend.

"It's clear there has been a misunderstanding," a spokeswoman, Shay Andres, said. "While he is not speaking on behalf of YRMC, we respect Dr Gilman's right to share his personal perspective on the pandemic."

In response, Gilman tweeted that that was "news to me".

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Arizona ER doctor says he was fired for tweeting about coronavirus surge

Cleavon Gilman says hospital told him not to return to work after his viral comments about bed shortage

www.theguardian.com

 

[Aurongel]

"It's clear there has been a misunderstanding," a spokeswoman, Shay Andres, said. "While he is not speaking on behalf of YRMC, we respect Dr Gilman's right to share his personal perspective on the pandemic."

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Odd, it doesn't sound like the organization is being particularly evasive here.

 

[Loudninja]

AH yes fired a doctor during a pandemic very smart.

Edit: Sounds like he thought he was fired for some reason.

 

[RBH]

Hospital admin are trash

 

[DrScruffleton]

I dont get it. Is one hand not talking to the other here or are they trying to immediately reverse whoever said hes fired and claim it didnt happen.

 

[Joni]

I'm going to guess someone got loudly yelled at for doing something stupid.

 

[blue_whale]

Doesn't this sound like wuhan early days?

 

[deepFlaw]

AH yes fired a doctor during a pandemic very smart.

Edit: Sounds like he thought he was fired for some reason.

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I mean...

The next morning, Nov. 23, Gilman had just arrived at the hospital when he received a call from the health care staffing company he works for, Envision Healthcare. Envision told him the hospital did not want him to come back to work.

"They told me it was because of the tweets and I couldn't believe it because that was accurate information I posted to inform the citizens of Arizona," he said. "It is a grave injustice and it's not just happening to me. Doctors everywhere are afraid to speak up."

Gilman was scheduled the following three days but the "hospital did not permit" him to come in, he said.

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"This weekend" is like 3 weeks after this happened. It's not like there was just a mixup in the past few days. I would assume he's the one being truthful here.

 

[SilentPanda]

I dont get it. Is one hand not talking to the other here or are they trying to immediately reverse whoever said hes fired and claim it didnt happen.

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Probabely unfire him after the story is getting into national news?
Since there's quite a few day between his "firing" and not fired and suddenly working now.

At least he is saying that he was "fired" in november, and he just saw the news that he's not fired?

 

[Ra]

An article on this that I read this morning more accurately stated that he says the hospital told the agency he works through that they suddenly had no shifts for him, which is why the sudden, "oh? we have him on the schedule this weekend" is so contrived and convenient.

Edit: here it is, from MSN.com:

MSN

 

[Daphne]

Yeah, it seems to me they're trying to unfuck the bad PR situation of firing an ER doctor for telling the truth during a pandemic.

 

[Mechaplum]

Doesn't this sound like wuhan early days?

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Well, that was a more sinister cover-up where the doctors were actually charged instead of just fired I think. Regardless, same song and dance. We really shouldn't be pointing too many fingers before sorting ourselves up.