The Doctors’ Working Conditions Reform Task Force (醫師勞動條件改革小組) yesterday urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare to face the worsening shortage of medical specialists and end the constant overwork doctors face by entitling them to protections under the Labor Standards Act (勞基法).
“Weeks after the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) inferno, the nation’s medical system has passed the emergency care stage and begun a long-term battle to treat the burn victims,” task force doctor Chen Ping-hui (陳秉暉) told a news conference in Taipei.
However, Chen said an investigation by the organization found that a large proportion of medical staff were still over-exerted, suggesting that the nation was not prepared to deal with medical needs after a major emergency.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Citing the ministry’s evaluation of the working hours of residents at teaching hospitals last year, Chen said the weekly working hours and the maximum continuous working hours of the majority of residents, regardless of their specialty, were longer than standard working hours.
“On average, plastic surgeons work 100 hours per week, with some even working 116-hour weeks. That means they spend more than two-thirds of each day working,” Chen said.
He also criticized the Executive Yuan’s plan to allocate NT$1 billion (US$31.9 million) from a secondary reserve fund as bonuses for medical personnel treating the nearly 500 burn victims.
“Money and working hours are two separate matters. Bonuses are only significant if medical specialists are alive to spend it. No amount of money can eliminate fatigue and make up for their constant overwork,” Chen said.
Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-liam (孫友聯) said the reward scheme was merely a stopgap measure by the government and that the only fundamental solution was to improve the working conditions of medical personnel.
Son urged the Ministry of Labor to revise the act to protect hospital residents to eradicate rampant overwork and the “blood-and-sweat working conditions” faced by doctors and nurses.
“For more than a decade, government officials have dismissed medical specialists’ calls to be covered by the Labor Standards Act, saying that their profession was ‘special and unique’ and did not apply. And now, the Executive Yuan has come up with a scheme to try to appease the overworked doctors and nurses,” Son said.
Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Link executive director Huang Yi-ling (黃怡翎) said medical personnel were at particularly high risk of death from overwork, as their combined work hours over a two-week period surpassed the Ministry of Labor’s 256-hour norm for declaring overwork as the cause of a sudden death.
“The law stipulates that in the face of a catastrophic event, hospitals can raise the cap on working hours of medical personnel, who will be allowed to take deferred days off afterward. However, the real question is whether they will actually be able to enjoy those days off amid the severe shortage of staff,” Huang said.
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