54% of On-Site Responders Including COVID-19 Medical Staff Say "Treatment Is Unfair"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] About half of the frontline response personnel working at COVID-19 sites, including doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, and public health center officials, believe that their treatment is unfair and that they are not safe from infection, according to a survey.

The Gyeonggi-do Public Health Medical Support Group and Professor Yum Myung-soon’s team from Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health conducted a perception survey on COVID-19 from the 18th to the 31st of last month targeting a total of 1,112 medical and frontline response team members, and on the 12th announced the first survey results containing these findings.

This survey was conducted to understand the physical and mental conditions of medical staff and frontline response teams, who are key actors in COVID-19 response and essential personnel for preparing for a second wave, and to utilize the results in developing support measures by local governments.

The survey areas included risk perception and preventive behaviors, stress, physical and mental health, work environment, willingness to work, and sense of responsibility.

When asked how fair the allocation of necessary resources and treatment processes were for the frontline response teams, 54.1% answered "unfair," which was higher than those who answered "fair" (45.9%).

The perception of unfairness was highest among public health center officials at 65.5%, followed by other response workers such as epidemiologists at 59.1%, and nurses at 51.3%.

By affiliation, those working at frontline response institutions such as screening clinics had the highest perception of unfairness at 64.6%, followed by private medical institutions (55.5%) and public medical institutions (47.5%).

Regarding the duration of work participation of frontline response personnel, 41.7% reported working for 3 to 4 months, which was the most common period.

When asked about changes in health status due to frontline response work, 47.2% answered that there was no change. However, 37.5% responded that their health had worsened, indicating the need for countermeasures.

When the degree of poor health was rated on a 5-point scale, it was ▲3.5 for those who worked 30 days ▲4.0 for 60 days ▲4.6 for 90 days, showing that the longer the work period, the more the health status was perceived to have deteriorated.

69.6% of respondents said there was no adjustment of working hours to reduce labor intensity, and 43.7% answered that they participated in work involuntarily and under coercion.

Professor Yum Myung-soon of Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health emphasized, "COVID-19 response is virtually impossible without the nationwide medical staff and quarantine teams responsible for prevention and infectious disease treatment," adding, "It is urgent to prepare measures to improve their treatment in preparation for the heatwave and the second large wave. It is a time when not only government support but also social solidarity from the entire nation is needed to ensure the safety of frontline response teams and to enable early response to mental and psychological risk signals."

The willingness to continue working on COVID-19 response was high in this survey. 83.4% of respondents said they would continue to do the work assigned to them as long as the COVID-19 situation continues.

Even if the COVID-19 situation becomes severe, 77.0% overwhelmingly responded that they would continue their assigned work.

Meanwhile, when asked about the infection risk at their current workplace, half of the respondents (50.1%) reported that their current workplace was not safe from infection.

When asked about their own "possibility of infection" and the "severity of infection consequences" such as health impacts and damages caused by infection, 43.8% of the COVID-19 medical and quarantine response teams answered that the possibility of infection was high. 68.1% believed that the health impacts and other damages resulting from infection would be "severe."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee Hee-young, director of the Gyeonggi-do Public Health Medical Support Group, said, "In the current situation where confirmed cases are increasing in the metropolitan area, the burden felt by many medical staff and quarantine personnel will be greater, and many diagnoses and tests will also impose a heavy workload on quarantine personnel," adding, "I hope the results of this survey will be actively used as basic data for developing support measures for frontline response teams."

Gyeonggi-do plans to prepare realistic support measures based on the results of the second and third surveys jointly conducted by the Gyeonggi-do Public Health Medical Support Group and Professor Yum Myung-soon of Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health targeting medical staff and frontline response teams.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.