By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff Reporter
On a reception desk at the Jeonjinsang clinic ― immersed in a sea of shoddy flats on a hill in Siheung-dong in southwestern Seoul ― a note is posted: "Those who have difficulty getting medical services due to a lack of money are welcome."
For 34 years, the clinic has provided not only free medical services but also consultations on legal, educational and various other home affairs for the urban poor.
Marie-Helene Brasseur, 63, nicknamed "the doctor with blue eyes," has treated and helped people who suffer from diseases and poverty at the clinic since its inception in 1975.
The institute, established after the late Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan called for action, seeks to provide comprehensive medic and welfare services.
In the initial years, Brasseur, a Belgian who came to Korea in 1972 as a volunteer nurse, put all of her energy into treating poor patients in the region, visiting their homes even during weekends.
However, as she felt limitations in providing medical treatment as a nurse, she enrolled at Chung-Ang University and obtained a doctor's license in 1985. Since then, she has assumed the role of a family doctor for the needy, treating as many as 350,000 people so far as president of the clinic. Her Korean name is Bae Hyon-jeong.
In recognition of her devotion in helping the underprivileged, the Asan Foundation decided to award her the 21st Asan Grand Prize.
"All these works are impossible without the support of volunteers," Brasseur said. "I don't want to become a doctor who just sits at a hospital desk. A real doctor is the one who takes care of the environment surrounding patients."
She thinks doctors cannot offer fundamental treatments to patients without knowing their environment and that's why she spends time on studying family trees of patients.
The clinic also runs a "Hospice and Palliative Center" to take care of terminal cancer patients.
"We cannot revive them. But we volunteers are with them until their last days to help them live happily to the last moment," Brasseur said.
She says she wants to make the clinic "a place where anyone who is sick can come."
Besides Brasseur, there are five other female staff members who virtually co-run the clinic and annexed centers, all of them residing there.
You Song-ja, a social worker, is one of them. She said the clinic also takes payment from ordinary patients though it offers services free for the poor.
"After meeting with our patients, we decide whether to charge them or not. Of course, some patients even make donations to our clinic," You said.
She said that as the clinic is run by volunteers and on donations, its budget is always tight.
The clinic's budget is comprised of revenue generated by the running of the clinic and pharmacy, as well as from donations.
As it operates as a combination of a hospital and a welfare center, it is not entitled to government subsidies.
"In the yardstick of government regulations, our institute is sort of neither a clinic nor a social welfare center, which means we cannot become a beneficiary of subsidies from the government," You said.
She said patients have difficulty using the services provided by its hospice and palliative center as they are not in the category covered by the national medical insurance scheme.
"At this time of economic hardship, donations tend to dwindle, making our operations harder," she said. "I hope the whole society will pay more attention to helping as many poor people as possible."