Foreigners get medical help by calling 1339

By Park Si-soo

More than 13,000 foreign nationals have gotten assistance from a medical information center run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The city government Friday said 13,283 foreigners contacted the Seoul Emergency Medical Information Center as of March since it came into operation in May 2008.

Nearly 50 percent of the callers were English-speaking, followed by Chinese with 11 percent and Japanese with 7 percent, city officials said.

The most sought-after information was about hospitals available for foreign nationals (53 percent), followed by medical consultations (11 percent) and first aid (2.4 percent).

The center provides foreigners with information about first-aid, diseases and hospitals in Seoul around the clock in English, Japanese and Chinese, by calling 1339. It plans to provide the services in Vietnamese and Mongolian from August.

“We are trying to make Seoul the best place for foreigners to live in terms of medical services,” said Seoul City director Mo Hyun-hee.