Public concern about health and safety due to a series of industrial worker accidents, made it necessary for the port to take action towards improving its health and safety provisions and infrastructure. In response, Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority (YGPA) opened the Gwangyang Port Health Management Office to improve the health of workers and create a safe workplace by building infrastructure to address health blind spots in the port.
In December 2019, Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority signed a business agreement with the Jeollanam-do Eastern Workers’ Health Center to implement specialized health checkup management for port workers, including staffing support for the Gwangyang Port Health Care Center and providing health services. In 2021, the Gwangyang Port Health Care Center has opened. Basic cerebrovascular disease screenings and musculoskeletal disease prevention exercises were conducted for port workers. In addition, health services were offered directly at the port site taking into consideration the characteristics of the port work and associated difficulties for workers to visit the health care center by setting time aside.
Furthermore, a survey was conducted among users of the health center to gather their feedback on the frequency of operation and the operating hours of the center. As from 2022, the Gwangyang Port health center operates five times a week (instead of only once a week at the start), reflecting on the users’ respective feedback.
We created a healthy working environment for port workers by expanding the number of health beneficiaries at the Gwangyang Port Health Management Office (from 228 people in 2021, to 1265 people in 2022), and improved the health of a total of 177 workers through follow-up management of cerebrovascular and musculoskeletal diseases. In addition, we were able to increase the level of health and safety awareness among port workers through dedicated education and training, including collective exercise programs.