Admission delays at emergency rooms were reported across South Korea amid a walkout by trainee doctors, highlighting the strain on the country’s healthcare system.
Tragically, a cardiac arrest patient in her 80s died in an ambulance in Daejeon while emergency workers struggled to find an ER that would admit her. The patient experienced heart failure on Friday and was taken away by an ambulance.
However, seven hospitals turned away the emergency workers, citing a lack of medical staff or available hospital beds. It took 53 minutes for the woman to be accepted at a university hospital in Daejeon, but she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Patient Died Of Cardiac Arrest (Credits: WNDU)
The situation is not unique to Daejeon. According to the Daejeon Fire Headquarters, there were 23 cases of admission delays in the city over the past week, with 18 occurring over the weekend. In Busan, there were 42 cases of admission delays, leading to patients having to be admitted at hospitals in adjacent cities in six cases.
The ongoing walkout by trainee doctors, with 10,034 of them submitting their resignations and 9,006 walking out of their jobs before their resignations were accepted, has exacerbated the situation.
This represents nearly 70 percent of trainee doctors in South Korea. The government has issued a warning that it could begin suspending the licenses of trainee doctors next month unless they return to work.
The doctors are protesting the government’s decision to increase the annual enrollment quota for medical schools by 2,000. This move has led to concerns among doctors about the quality of medical education and the future of the profession.
The situation underscores the challenges facing the healthcare system in South Korea and the need for a comprehensive approach to address these issues.
