Several advocates for the rights of healthcare workers yesterday urged the government to make public hospitals’ nurse-to-patient ratio and include the measure in annual evaluations after a recent survey found that most nurses must attend to too many patients.
The survey of about 2,700 nursing personnel conducted by the Taiwan Medical Alliance for Labor Justice and Patient Safety (TMAL) showed that more than 96 percent of the respondents must take care of at least 12 patients during graveyard shifts, while 61 percent of the medical center nurses polled said they have to oversee more than 16 patients during late-night shifts.
Even in the emergency unit, 56 and 76 percent of the respondents who work at a medical center said they have at least 16 patients to attend to on night and graveyard shifts respectively, the survey indicated.
Photo: CNA
“The results of the survey underscored President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) failure to fulfill his promise in 2013 to reduce the nation’s average nurse-to-patient ratio to 1:7 before he completes his presidential term next year,” TMAL director-general Chang Chih-hua (張志華) told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Chang said statistics compiled by European countries showed that the ideal nurse-to-patient ratio is 1:6, and that with each additional patient a nurse has to take care of, the chance of a patient dying within 30 days increases by 7 percent.
Alliance deputy secretary-general Lee Wei (李為), a registered nurse, said the government’s latest standards for hospital evaluation stipulate that the nurse-to-patient ratio during daytime should be less than 1:11 at district hospitals, 1:10 at regional hospitals and 1:9 at medical centers.
“To date, no hospital in the country has managed to achieve a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:7. Only listing the maintenance of a normal ratio as a prerequisite in hospitals’ annual evaluations would make real changes possible,” Lee told reporters and others.
Saying that an elevated nurse-to-patient ratio is often accompanied by diminished patient care, Lee urged the government to disclose medical centers’ ratios on its Web site each quarter, so patients can opt for hospitals where employees are less stressed and less exhausted.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) said the Ministry of Health and Welfare allocated NT$2.5 billion (US$81.2 million) to hospitals nationwide in 2013 to help them increase nursing staff.
“However, we have seen news reports of nurses going to work sick themselves and hooked up to an intravenous drip, and pregnant doctors who lost their babies after being asked to work graveyard shifts,” Liu said.
“How can Taiwan still brag about its National Health Insurance system while so many workers in the medical industry are suffering?” Liu asked, urging Ma to take concrete steps to address the problem.
In response, Department of Medical Affairs deputy director Huang Chun-ing (黃純英) said the ministry on Feb. 9 put forward a regulation requiring hospitals to maintain a nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:7 during the day and 1:9 on average the entire day.
“In the meantime, we will continue to solicit and take into account relevant opinions,” Huang said.
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