[Corona Behind] Corona Hospital 'Same job, different salary'

※ 'Corona Behind' is a report by Park Soo-jin, a reporter from the Life and Culture Department of SBS Press Headquarters, who is running at the forefront of the Corona 19 coverage.

Once a week, reporters Park's articles and thoughts that were not included in the article are released to readers.

[Editor's Note]

The day when the number of severe cases of Corona reached 1,000.

I visited a public hospital in Seoul that is treating about 200 corona patients.

The hospital beds were full of critically ill Corona patients whose condition was worse than usual, and the situation room monitoring the patients was busy.

I thought that the words 'difficult' and 'difficult' would come out first, but the answer of the hospital manager who responded to the interview was surprising.

"It's easy to see only the patient. There is nothing difficult as long as you can see the patient."

More than 200 medical staff left the hospital last year.

Most of them are nurses, and the number of nurses leaving the company has doubled from a year ago.

Corona work itself is hard work, but there is a more realistic reason.

"When a new dispatched nurse comes in, the existing staff take them away. They ask, 'How much are you?' It's a strange conflict, and it's actually harder to read through this and lead it than it is to see a patient."

'Same job, different pay' that has been going on for two years

Regular nurses are employees contracted with hospitals, and dispatched nurses work after contracting with the government or local governments and matching hospitals.

The treatment of medical staff dispatched by the government was based on the wage base paid during the MERS outbreak in 2015.

Since it is a job to treat patients at the risk of infection, the basic salary is high, and various allowances such as risk allowance are attached.

But no one knew that the corona virus would last this long.

The public hospital I went to had lower salaries due to the characteristics of the hospital, but even a private hospital with better conditions says that it is not easy to pay all nurses at the level of government dispatched wages.

The government cannot force private hospitals to raise wages.

What's Happening in the Corona Hospital Now

Finding opportunities to earn more is a natural thing to do.

Nurse A, who is in her 8th year of experience this year, left the hospital she attended a month ago.

Currently, we are waiting after applying for the middle school dispatch nurse.

The hospital I worked at became a corona-only hospital, and Mr. A, who had experience in the intensive care unit, was also in charge of seriously ill patients in the corona ward.

The increasing number of patients and continuous overtime work were daunting, but the decisive reason for the decision to leave the company was other.

“There was a nurse who was dispatched, but she had little experience. She had no experience in intensive care. I had to teach everything. But, her salary was twice as high as mine? .. something strange? I felt like that."

Mr. B, who works as a dispatched nurse at a hospital that treats both corona patients and general patients, said:

“There is subtle awkwardness and discomfort with the existing staff. I am the only dispatcher now. I do not share work well every time I work at the same duty, and I am not familiar with this hospital for the first time, but there are many things that I am not familiar with. .There are invisible walls, and it's a bit awkward with each other. There are a lot of people like me when I look at the dispatched nurse okbang (open kakao chat room), but there are also people who say, 'I endure the numbers stamped on my bankbook.'"

Some dedicated hospitals are currently recruiting 'contract nurses' under the slogan of 'wages at the level of dispatched workers', as the outflow of existing manpower is severe, and the level of dispatched manpower required by hospitals is not being filled in time.

An official from this hospital said, "As the hospital became a base hospital, there was a shortage of manpower (compared to the expanded beds), but as the number of corona hospitals increases, it is not easy because there are many places to find people. "He said.

Government's solution = Reducing dispatch 'travel expenses'?

The government is well aware of the voices of this field.

On the 22nd of last month, they also came up with related measures.

In summary:

When this measure was announced, the dispatched nurses strongly opposed it.

The travel expenses paid to dispatched workers include accommodation expenses, and unlike other allowances, tax is not deducted.

It occupies a significant proportion of the total salary, and removing it will cause a backlash.

(In some cases, dispatched nurses have to go to hospitals or screening clinics in areas that have no ties to the current system.)

Regular nurses also say that effective measures such as a work environment in which nurses can continue to work without leaving the hospital, an appropriate number of patients compared to the number of nurses, and appropriate compensation are needed rather than 'reducing the gap' by cutting the salaries of dispatched workers.

“Nurses do all kinds of work the moment they enter the Corona ward. Not only general medical care, but also meals for patients, dialysis treatment, pressure sore disinfection, blood collection, and transfer. I think that there is energy that can be energized when there is adequate compensation and encouragement as much as the work done. In addition to wages, there must be an accurate standard for the number of patients treated per nurse. You cannot work with a sense of duty alone."

(Nurse at Seoul Corona Hospital)

Health and medical union "Corona medical personnel standards should also be issued an administrative order"

In September of last year, the health care union and the government reached a labor union agreement and established standards for the placement of nursing personnel in the corona bed. Although it was decided to place 1.8 nurses per bed based on the standard of critically ill beds,

Fortunately, the budget of 120 billion won was passed by the National Assembly at the end of last year for the infection control allowance (life safety allowance) for the expansion of health and medical personnel and improvement of treatment. Incentives are expected to be received (the announcement of the major script briefing on the 22nd of last year), but has not been paid yet.

The government has a plan to increase the number of beds more than now in preparation for the spread of Omicron. By the end of next month, the number of severe coronavirus beds will increase to 1,500. If the number of confirmed cases increases 2-3 times compared to now due to the spread of Omicron, the number of patients requiring hospitalization will inevitably increase, no matter how low the fatality rate is compared to Delta.

“If the government is to secure 5,000 beds now, the actual availability is not that much. There is a shortage of medical personnel compared to the number of beds. . I continued to suggest last year, but it has not been implemented. In

accordance with this standard, hospitals should expand their medical personnel and gradually reduce dispatch. It is necessary to establish a system that can respond as regular troops rather than mercenaries. Leave due to treatment or working environment. It is necessary to create a virtuous cycle structure so that people do not change jobs or change jobs.”

(Jeong Jae-soo, head of policy at the Health and Medical Association)

(Interviewer: Park Soo-jin, PD: Kim Do-kyun, Illustration: Kim Jeong-yeon, Producer: D Content Planning Department)