Nurse members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions hold a press conference in front of the city hall building in central Seoul on Sept. 15, 2021, calling for reinforcement of nursing staff to ease the heavy workload amid the new coronavirus pandemic. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Nurses are calling on the government to take responsibility for the damages caused by the ‘With Corona’ policy, which they argue is taking a drastic toll on both healthcare workers and Koreans in general.
Some 40 members of the labor union at Seoul National University Hospital held a press conference near the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Tuesday, criticizing the government’s constant failure to come up with ways to implement guidelines for nurses fighting the pandemic, which were drafted in late September following 18 months of protest.
“Nurses are even using the wards normally off-limits to guardians to accommodate patients despite the shortage of trained nurses. Both the ruling and the opposition party, however, are failing to come up with measures to bring healthcare workers back from the verge of collapse,” the labor union said.
Earlier this year, the union decided to submit a labor-management agreement to the government limiting each nurse to the care of no more than seven patients.
“However, it requires more than just a change in the working environment to solve the shortage of staff. It requires change in the government’s policy and institution for nurses,” the labor union said.
They called upon government action to set restrictions on the number of patients managed by each nurse, as well as plans to acquire more hospital beds and staff.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
