I couldn’t have been prouder of the sheer heroics of so many doctors, nurses, and other frontline professionals during the COVID pandemic. The last year has confirmed the dedication of the whole medical world, and despite my issues with how some in the medicine (and political) establishment have responded to COVID, I don’t think anybody could have asked anything more of the committed clinicians who have been serving their patients every day.

I’ve written previously about how certain aspects of our coronavirus response have been suboptimal and frequently not followed common sense or even the science. School closures and the mandates in some parts of the country to wear masks outdoors—even if you are alone on a hike nowhere near anyone else—have left me a bit baffled.

There’s one recurrent issue however, which whenever I’ve heard it, has left me sad, frustrated and also to be honest, quite angry too. That’s whenever I’ve heard stories of COVID-19 patients dying alone in the hospital. Fortunately, the hospitals that I have been working in, have been a bit better at this, but I am still regularly hearing these stories from around the country and the world.

I could understand at the beginning of the pandemic last year, with certain hospitals overwhelmed and COVID being so new, the need to strictly enforce visitation policies. But we are now well over a year into the pandemic, and I’m still hearing stories of relatives faced with their loved ones only having a few hours or days left, literally begging to be let into the hospital to be with them, and adamantly being refused entry.

Let’s think about this for a moment. When COVID patients are in hospital, professionals are going in and out of their rooms all the time. Doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, housestaff, cleaners… and they all simply don the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including an N95 mask that costs less than a dollar. I simply fail to believe that in the unique and tragic circumstance of a patient actively dying, we couldn’t arrange for a relative or two to be fitted with PPE in a few minutes and get them into the room to say goodbye. I’m sure many of them would be happy to isolate afterwards if need be.

This is a hospital administration issue—it’s nothing to do with the doctors and nurses who are performing heroics at the frontline. Anybody would have to have a heart of stone, especially in healthcare, to turn away distraught relatives like this.

Human beings have been dealing with pandemics since the dawn of time. Literally since caveman days. Most of them, in reality, have actually been far worse than COVID, including the Black Death—which killed up to 50 percent of everyone infected. Never in human history have we denied relatives the right to be with their ailing loved one. This is a basic human desire that transcends all cultures. Nobody wants their relative to die alone.

What I would say to any healthcare administrator who is rigidly enforcing this rule: imagine the person you love most in the world, actively dying. How would you feel inside if you could not be with them? I can understand healthcare facilities not wanting excessive visitors, especially for stable patients. Or if they were overwhelmed, having more emergent policies in place. But right now, there’s no excuse for this. Somebody dying alone with their loved ones nearby wanting to visit, takes things to a whole different level, and is cruel and unnecessary.

We simply have to do better here. Healthcare is above all else, an arena for compassion and empathy. I made a video around Christmas on this issue and recently made a repeat video which you can view above . This situation is completely unacceptable to me, and also a basic human rights violation. Nobody with COVID 19 should be dying alone.

All I can say as a member of the medical profession, to anybody who has experienced the tragedy of a loved one passing away like this over the last year, is to apologize, on behalf of healthcare.  We have to show more common sense and compassion here—and find a fix for this.

Suneel Dhand is a physician, writer, and YouTuber. He is Founder at MedStoic Lifestyle Medicine and DocsDox . Follow him on YouTube and Facebook.