“Korea is not Liberia, it is not Sierra Leone, it is not Guinea. Korea has the resources to protect its people and the workers who provide frontline healthcare, but also the workers responsible for receiving travellers from overseas, for providing public transportation, and a range of other services that people depend on in their daily lives.  Government’s short-sighted focus on cutting funding to the health sector is costing lives. Privatisation of healthcare services is proving to be a threat for patients, and the attempt to destroy trade unions is threatening the protection of workers.”
 

“UNISON just hosted a PSI meeting of trade unions and specialists to focus on the issue of staff-patient ratios in healthcare.  All of the evidence points to the fact that staffing levels are key to health outcomes. This is especially true with infectious diseases such as MERS or Ebola. The fewer qualified staff, the more infections and the more deaths, both within the population at large as well as amongst health workers.”
 

“In New York our union demanded, and is participating in a system-wide approach to disasters, including epidemics, among all hospitals, staffed by union-management committees.  The expertise and concerns of the frontline workers must be integrated into planning, both in response to the threats and to better prepare for the next inevitable crises.  This is an approach applicable to all countries, regardless of level of development, and will result in a vastly more effective response to outbreaks and disasters.”
 
기사출처: http://world-psi.org/en/psi-statement-middle-easy-respiratory-syndrome-mers-korea