Government to improve trauma center system

By Kim Jae-heun

The government announced Thursday it will spend more money on trauma centers across the country to improve medical treatment for serious injuries.

The poor conditions at 10 trauma centers became an issue last November after a North Korean soldier defected to the South through the Demilitarized Zone.

Ajou University Hospital’s trauma specialist Lee Cook-jong led the medical team operating on the North Korean soldier, and spoke of the poor conditions and manpower shortage there.

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon who announced the measure during a cabinet meeting said the government would put forward 27 new measures to improve the working environment and medical treatment conditions to reduce the death rate to 20 percent in seven years. The injury fatality rate reached 30.5 percent in 2015.

“We remember how we saved our heroic captain Seok Hae-kyun of a hijacked ship in the Gulf of Aden, and the recently defected North Korean with our advanced medical treatments. The two incidents left us with a lot of homework to do,” the prime minister said.

“The public particularly raised its voice on increasing support for trauma centers and it moved to petition Cheong Wa Dae with a record number of participants. We can no longer delay our plan to expand support for regional trauma centers,” the prime minister added.

The most notable change to come will be mobilizing more emergency helicopters to carry the patients.

Currently, only six helicopters serve as transport, but under the new measures, the trauma centers will be able to use more than 100 state-owned helicopters at hospitals, fire stations, police departments and military units.

The government will also strengthen the education system for emergency medical technicians.

A trauma map will also be provided for emergency flights transferring patients along with easy-to-follow manuals on treating urgent patients for the public.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare will also provide financial support for the trauma centers so that they can hire more nurses and give a pay increase to doctors.

The ministry said it will give 40 million won per additional nurse and the pay increase will be 20 percent.