Cases of patient damage continue as doctors' walkout enters 8th day
A patient arrives at a general hospital in an ambulance, Daegu, Feb. 27. Yonhap
Cases of patient damage and complaints continued, with emergency treatment for a newborn with breathing difficulties delayed for hours, as a trainee doctors' walkout protesting the government's medical school quota hike entered its eighth day on Tuesday.
Concerns about a healthcare service crisis are deepening as about 9,000 intern and resident doctors have stayed away from their job at general hospitals across the nation in protest against the plan to raise medical school enrollment seats by 2,000 next year.
With no signs of a compromise from either side, major general hospitals countrywide were grappling with the absence of trainee doctors by significantly reducing their operations, including surgeries, emergency rooms and intensive care units.
In the southeastern city of Changwon on Sunday, an ambulance urgently transported a baby less than a month old from its home for breathing difficulties and symptoms of cyanosis.
Emergency service workers contacted five general hospitals in the area to admit the baby, but all of them refused, citing a lack of medical workers. The baby was eventually transported to a general hospital in Jinju, located some 60 kilometers away, three hours after leaving home.
In South Gyeongsang Province, three more cases of delayed emergency medical transportation were reported between Thursday and Saturday, involving patients in their teens, 20s and 70s, respectively, for whom an available hospital was not located for over 50 minutes.
Operations at many general hospitals remained at low capacity due to the extended absence of trainee doctors, a core part of the medical workforce.
Chungbuk National University Hospital in Cheongju, 112 kilometers southeast of Seoul, had its hospital bed operations at 40 percent of capacity, and suspended the admission of emergency patients in some of its departments.
The number of surgeries the hospital conducted per day also fell to 40 from the average of 70.
Inha University Hospital in Incheon, west of Seoul, suspended the operations of eight out of its 18 operating rooms, and it shifted its surgery capacities to focus on cancer patients or those in emergent or serious conditions.
The operations of surgery rooms and intensive care units at general hospitals in South Jeolla Province and the central city of Daejeon have also been slashed by up to 30 percent. (Yonhap)