National University Hospital Union Coalition "Loans Borrowed by National University Hospitals in the First Half Exceed Last Year's Amount... Labor and Management Must Work Together"

"Repeated Requests for Labor-Management Meeting Rejected"

The National University Hospital Labor Union Solidarity Group claimed that the borrowings of 16 national university hospitals in the first half of this year have already exceeded the total borrowings of the entire previous year, and argued that dialogue between labor and management is necessary to overcome the deficit. The National University Hospital Labor Union Solidarity Group is a coalition organization of 13 national university hospital unions affiliated with the Health and Medical Workers' Union and the Public Transport Workers' Union Medical Solidarity Headquarters.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 16th, the National University Hospital Labor Union Solidarity Group stated, "The total borrowings of 16 national university hospitals in the first half of this year amount to 1.3524 trillion won, already surpassing last year's total borrowings of 1.3158 trillion won. The deficit of national university hospitals due to the medical crisis is a serious situation, and hospital workers are worried about unpaid leave, forced use of annual leave, and wage arrears."

They added, "Moreover, there are no government support measures to strengthen the public nature of national university hospitals in the medical reform, raising serious concerns about whether the reform objectives can be achieved."

They pointed out that for the government's policy to strengthen the capabilities of national university hospitals to proceed smoothly, labor and management need to pool their wisdom, but the National University Hospital Association has been lukewarm about dialogue. The National University Hospital Labor Union Solidarity Group condemned, "Since June, we have repeatedly requested labor-management meetings with the National University Hospital Association to seek ways to overcome the management crisis of national university hospitals, strengthen publicness, and focus on the role of public medical institutions, but the association ultimately refused."

They emphasized, "To overcome the serious management deficit of national university hospitals and strengthen medical publicness, labor and management must work together without division," and "The association must actively step forward so that national university hospitals can establish themselves as public hospitals that build a regionally complete medical system."

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