Emergency Room Crisis: Medical Staff Struggle as Residents Exodus Leaves ERs Overwhelmed | Yonhap News

Medical staff are busy in the emergency room of a university hospital in Daegu on the 29th, the 10th day of the group exodus of residents and the last day of the government’s proposed return deadline. / Yonhap News

At around 10 a.m. on the 29th, A (83), a man suffering from terminal cancer, was taken to the emergency room at Severance Hospital in Seoul. His daughter said, “I came because my father said, ‘My stomach hurts so much because my ascites is full.’” At around 6:40 a.m. on this day, Mr. Hong (37) visited the emergency room of this hospital carrying his 22-month-old child. He said, “The child was vomiting all night.”

After the residents guarding the emergency room left their workplace en masse on the 20th, the number of mildly ill patients visiting large hospital emergency rooms is decreasing, and the number of critically ill patients is increasing. Front-line emergency room professors and full-time doctors said, “It is difficult due to the resident strike, but the emergency room is becoming more like an emergency room.”

Lee Hyung-min, president of the Korean Association of Emergency Physicians (professor of emergency medicine at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital), said, “After the residents left the group, the number of patients decreased by about 40%, and the number of patients with mild symptoms also decreased.” ·They seem to think it is difficult to receive treatment.” An emergency medicine professor at a large hospital in Busan said, “Intensive patients are mainly coming to the emergency room, and the total number of outpatients has decreased by 40 to 50 percent.” He added, “(The residents’ strike) is an unintentional situation, but this is a huge difference from a truly large hospital dedicated to treating critically ill patients.” “It’s like an emergency room,” he said. A professor of emergency medicine in Gangwon-do said, “After the group of residents left, I feel that patients with severe symptoms are going to tertiary (large) hospitals, and patients with mild symptoms are going to smaller hospitals.” He added, “Even if patients with mild symptoms go to the emergency room of a large hospital, doctors “I think I am restraining myself after seeing the news that says there is no such thing.” A nurse at a large hospital in Seoul also said, “The number of patients visiting the emergency room due to drunkenness or simple headaches has decreased significantly.”

Medical staff are transporting a patient at the emergency medical center of a large hospital in Seoul on the 29th. On this day, which was the return deadline set by the government, only 294 residents (as of morning) returned to 100 teaching hospitals. /Reporter Oh Jong-chan

Mr. Somo (40), who lives in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, had worsening cold symptoms on the night of the 21st. His neck and back were swollen, making it difficult for him to breathe. When something like this happened at night, I usually went to the emergency room at Samsung Seoul Hospital. This time he went to an internal medicine clinic that was open late at night. He said, “I thought I would not be able to receive treatment if I went to the emergency room and would just have to wait, so I went to an internal medicine clinic that was open until 12 midnight and got an injection and a prescription for medicine.” “He said.

However, most emergency room doctors said, “Once this situation passes, the emergency room will once again become a ‘24-hour convenience store’ filled with patients with stomachaches, headaches, and hives.” According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 40% (897,570 people) of patients visiting emergency rooms (2,218,942 people) in 2021 were mild patients. It was 3.8 times the number of seriously ill patients (236,581).

Experts say that there is an urgent need to overhaul the system to prevent this. This means that, like in major foreign countries, laws should be enacted to restrict the use of so-called ‘walking patients’ (mild patients) in the emergency rooms of large hospitals that handle critically ill patients. Emergency rooms in Japan are divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary emergency centers. Patients with mild symptoms cannot use tertiary emergency centers. France also operates emergency rooms by dividing them into large hospital emergency rooms (SAU) that handle critically ill patients, specialized hospital emergency rooms (POSU) that handle specific organs, and hospital emergency rooms (UPA) that handle minor patients. On the other hand, in our country’s emergency rooms, it is not uncommon for doctors to be caught by the collar and sued for ‘refusal of treatment’ if they send away patients with mild symptoms.

An emergency medicine professor in South Gyeongsang Province said, “If the government just makes a few changes to the enforcement rules, it can sufficiently prevent the influx of mildly ill patients,” and added, “The government has neglected the problem for decades because it does not want to incur their complaints.” An emergency room doctor at a large hospital in Seoul also said, “The ones who grab people by the collar and make a fuss in the emergency room are non-emergency patients. “Severely ill patients do not have the strength or spirit to shout or use violence,” he said. “If the government only prevents mildly ill patients, doctors can focus only on critically ill patients.”

Many point out that the cost of using the emergency room should be realistic. Even if a mildly ill patient uses the emergency room of a large hospital, we do not have to pay extra money other than the emergency medical management fee of 50,000 to 70,000 won. Even this is refunded through actual loss insurance. Emergency room doctors said, “For patients with mild symptoms who visit the emergency room, we need to increase the out-of-pocket costs and move towards not applying actual cost insurance benefits.” Critically ill patients should be heavily protected with health insurance and actual loss insurance, but emergency room usage fees for mildly ill patients should be much higher.

2024-02-29 18:47:17
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