KHMU Report on PSI HSSTF Steering Committee meeting

 

 

 

<1> COVID-19 and Vaccination Situations

 

○ In Korea, the number of confirmed cases of Omicron variants started to increase significantly from the beginning of February, reaching 160,000 a day since the two week, and today(2, March), more than 210,000 were reported as confirmed. If the current trend continues, the number of those who test positive is expected to increase to a greater extent.

 

○ Fortunately, the death toll is an average of about 90 a day, and the total accumulated number of deaths is 8,266.

 

○ There were about 762 cases of severe illness, and the death toll did not increase significantly compared to the confirmed cases.

 

○ Approximately 86.5% of the total population has got vaccinated twice or more and 61.4% of them got the third shot. From the end of February, the government plans to encourage patients and employees in long-term care facilities to get the 4th shot.

 

○ Although the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is increasingly surging, the government is planning to significantly ease the current social distancing policy in consideration of the fact that the death rate due to Omicron is not high and that self-employed business owners are faced with financial hardship.

 

○ Regarding vaccines, the KHMU (The Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union) remains in the position that "Covid-19 vaccines and treatments should be available to anyone in need." In May of last year, the union held a press conference and urged the Korean government not to discriminate by making vacinnes and medications available to all who need them. he vaccines and medications’ patents in order to save more lives because vaccines are a public good for all people.

 

 

<2> Staffing Issues in the Health and Medical Sector

 

○ We need to increase the number of doctors. Medical doctors’ jobs are often taken care of by nurses. But, due to opposition from doctors, it has been failed to increase the number of doctors. Public medical schools should be established to be placed in marginalized areas where medical services are less accessible.

 

○ An adequate level of compensation is needed for health and medical personnel suffering from the current COVID-19 situations. Infection control allowance should additionally be paid by the government. Under the current agreement with the government, doctors and nurses will be paid 50,000 won ($42) per day, radiologists will be paid 30,000 won ($25), and patient transfer and cleaning workers will be paid 20,000 won ($17) per day.

 

<Table 1> Infection Control Allowance

Classification	Occupation	Payment per day	Eligibility
Health and Medical Personnel	a.       MD, Nurse	50,000	full-time employees who are engaged in surgery, treatment, and nursing for COVID-19 patients in government-designated intensive care beds, semi-intensive care beds, and isolation wards (rooms) of infectious disease hospitals
	a.       MD, Nurse	30,000	Part-time employees or those who work intermittently
	b.       Nursing assistant, medical technician, emergency responders, professional caregivers		Employees who are often in contact with COVID-19 patients or who work in places where exposure to the virus is highly likely
Other workers in medical facilities	c.       Those who work on patient transfer, preemptive quarantine zone, disinfection and cleaning, waste management, facility maintenance, etc.	20,000	Employees likely to be exposed to infection due to frequent contact with patients   Those who work in preemptive quarantine zones

 

○ In order to solve the shift system problem at the request of the KHMU, the government will provide financial support to hospitals that are carrying out the pilot project to improve the shift system this year.

 

- 1) In the case that an organization runs a rule-based shift work system, 2) In the case that an organization hires a separate nurse dedicated to training and education, 70% of the labor cost will be subsidized by the government.

 

- This policy will be implemented from April for the next 3years.

 

○ Currently, one nurse is in charge of 12-20 patients. The KHMU has continued to negotiate with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to develop a standard on a ratio of the patient-to-nurse for all beds.

 

○We set the criteria for the placement of nursing staff in the COVID-19 treatment bed in a way to reduce the workload of nurses and ensure that appropriate personnel are allocated to patient care. The patient's condition is divided into 3 stages (severe, semi-severe, moderate) and the criteria are presented as follows.

 

<Table 2> Guideline on the criteria for the placement of nursing staff in the COVID-19 treatment bed

 

	Beds for Severe Symptoms	Beds for Semi-Severe Symptoms	Beds for Moderate Symptoms
No. of nurse	1.8	0.9	0.36-0.2

 

○ In order to reduce working hours, the KHMU is demanding that the four-day workweek system should first be introduced to hospital workers who have to work shifts and even night shifts.

 

 

<3> Results of survey on health workers

 

○ The KHMU conducts regular surveys every year to understand the labor conditions of health and medical workers and collect opinions on major issues.

 

○ The 2021 regular survey was conducted for one month from March 12, and 43,058 people (56% of all union members) responded.

 

○ As COVID-19 is shaking up the lives of all citizens, 78.7% of the total respondents also said that their daily lives and routines has been negatively affected.

 

○ In terms of psychological conditions, 70.6% responded that it became worse. According to anecdotal evidence, the social and mental anxiety caused by the infectious disease disaster impacted more seriously on these health workers than workers in any other industries.

 

- In the survey titled 'Health Condition due to COVID-19' conducted by the Korea Health Promotion Institute in October 2020, 40.7% responded that they had experienced Corona Blue, and in a survey by the Gyeonggi Research Institute in March, 2021, 55.5% said yes for 'Anxiety and depression due to COVID-19'. Therefore, it is interpreted that health care workers feel more depressed than general citizens.

 

<Table 3> Impact of COVID-19

 

		Financial Situations	Working Conditions	Daily Routine	Health Conditions	Psychological State
COVID-19 hospital	better	4.4	8.1	2.5	2.5	2.0
	No change	75.5	41.3	22.2	57.3	31.8
	worse	20.0	50.5	75.4	40.2	66.2
COVID-19 dedicated wards(beds) in non-COVID-19 hospital	better	1.8	1.8	1.0	1.5	0.9
	no change	78.4	40.5	19.3	57.0	27.6
	worse	19.8	57.7	79.6	41.5	71.4
No COVID-19 wards or beds but medical service provided for COVID-19 patients	better	1.8	2.0	1.0	1.4	0.9
	no change	75.3	40.3	19.0	54.8	25.7
	worse	22.9	57.8	80.0	43.8	73.4
N/A for all the above	better	1.9	2.4	1.2	2.0	1.5
	no change	75.0	51.2	22.5	57.2	30.0
	worse	23.1	46.4	76.3	40.8	68.5
Total	better	2.3	3.1	1.3	1.7	1.2
	no change	77.1	41.2	20.0	56.7	28.3
	worse	20.6	55.7	78.7	41.6	70.6

*better: much better + a little better. **worse: a little worse + much worse

 

 

<4> Opposition to privatization of medical services, expansion of public health care

 

○ The KHMU has been campaigning against medical privatization, claiming that “medical care is not a commodity” and “life over money.”

 

○ In 2014, the KHMU organized general industrial strikes three times demanding “opposition to medical privatization policy”. At the time, it received signatures of support from 2 million citizens both on and offline.

 

○ Since March 2014, our union has formed the “Korean People’s Movement Headquarters to Stop Medical Privatization and Commercialization” together with 90 civil society organizations and have been conducting continuous activities.

 

○ Many citizens are supporting the KHMU's demand to increase public health care after the outbreak of COVID-19. In Korea, public hospitals account for only 10%. Only 10% of public hospitals treated 80% of COVID-19 confirmed patients. The KHMU is constantly demanding that the number of public hospitals be increased to 30%.

 

○ There is no hospital specializing in infectious diseases. Through the labor-government agreement on September 2 last year, it was decided to establish 4 hospitals specializing in infectious diseases by 2024.

 

○ Through the labor-government agreement, it was agreed to further secure more public hospitals in 70 regions and concerned consultations and discussions will continue.

 

 

Kang, Yeon Bae Head of Public Relations of KHMU

(khmu@naver.com)