2021-07-16 09:40 | Health & WelfareA public petition was uploaded on the Cheong Wa Dae website, June 29, calling on the government to improve working conditions for medical workers at public health centers.
The petitioner, who claimed to be a former nurse at a public health center in Busan, wrote, Nurses have been suffering from excessive workloads since the COVID-19 outbreak, and things have worsened since the vaccine rollout.
Public health centers have had to deal with numerous complaints from citizens about the lack of vaccines, a chaotic reservation process and reports of side effects, according to the petition. The government has repeatedly said that it would actively discuss measures needed to increase public health center nursing staff, to prevent the recurrence of the tragic case in Busan, but no follow-up measures have been announced yet, said the petitioner, urging the government to address the issue appropriately.
Seoul aiming to vaccinate 25% of population by June
Reuters, SEOUL
South Korea yesterday announced plans to expand its immunization campaign in the second quarter to include more elderly citizens, healthcare workers and other front-line professionals, with an aim to inoculate nearly one-quarter of its 52 million people by June.
Starting next month, more priority groups are to receive a vaccine, including more people aged 65 or above, other healthcare workers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers and flight attendants, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
South Korea began inoculating high-risk medical workers and the critically ill at the end of last month as it battles a third wave of COVID-19 and seeks to achieve herd immunity by November.
Posted : 2021-01-20 16:55
Updated : 2021-01-20 16:56
Members of the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union hold a press conference in front of City Hall in Seoul, Tuesday, to call on the government to increase the number of nurses at the city government-run Boramae Hospital. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
After a year of battling COVID-19 in Korea, nurses and other medical workers are feeling the strain of the extra workload, calling on the central and local governments to increase the number of hospital staff.
The Korean Health and Medical Workers Union (KHMWU) has been staging protests to call for proper action.