Private general hospitals ordered to provide more ICU beds for COVID-19 patients

The government issued an emergency order earlier this week telling private hospitals nationwide to earmark a certain portion of their intensive care unit (ICU) beds for seriously ill COVID-19 patients, officials said Saturday. Yonhap

The administrative order, the first of its kind, was delivered by the Central Disaster Management Headquarters to all local governments Friday, the officials said, as part of efforts to cope with the worsening ICU bed shortages caused by the recent surge in coronavirus infections.

The order mandates about 40 private general hospitals ― alongside state-run university hospitals ― to assign at least 1 percent of their beds for critically ill COVID-19 patients.

"With the recent surge in confirmed coronavirus cases, it is important to secure more hospital beds to treat seriously ill patients," said the central headquarters, noting the order was issued under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.

This is the first time that even private hospitals have come under an administrative order to provide beds for COVID-19 cases.

Public hospitals have so far received most local COVID-19 patients but have now reached saturation point, as the number of newly confirmed cases hovers around 1,000 per day. In Seoul alone, around 580 patients were waiting to be admitted to hospitals as of Friday.

Government officials expect the administrative order to free up about 300 ICU beds at private general hospitals.

Some critics, however, said the order could be unrealistic because 1 percent of all beds at such hospitals actually represents over 20 percent of their available ICU beds.

They said an excessive allotment of these to COVID-19 patients may weaken the hospitals' resources to treat critically-ill non-coronavirus patients. (Yonhap)