[2020 National Audit] "Increase in 119 Ambulance Re-transports Due to COVID-19 Impact"

Shin Hyun-young: "A system to separate routes for suspected infectious disease patients and non-infectious disease patients must be established"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] In the first half of this year, the number of re-transfers by 119 ambulance teams increased due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

According to the 'Status of 119 Ambulance Re-transfers in the Last 3 Years' submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to Shin Hyun-young, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, cases of re-transfer by 119 ambulance teams due to reasons such as shortage of specialists, lack of hospital beds, and medical equipment failure were 9,658 in 2018, 10,253 in 2019, and reached 7,807 in the first half of this year (January to June).

This year, the reasons for ambulance re-transfers included other causes such as lack of medical departments or shortage of medical staff due to excessive emergency room patients, accounting for 5,474 cases (70.12%). Re-transfers due to absence of specialists were 1,191 cases (15.26%), making it a major cause, followed by lack of hospital beds at 783 cases (10.03%) and changes of mind by patient guardians at 156 cases (2%).

The re-transfer rate compared to the total number of transfers increased from 0.52% in 2018 and 0.55% in 2019 to 0.99% in the first half of this year. In particular, cases of three or more transfers were 3,551 in 2018 and 2,551 in 2019, but surged to 3,433 in just the first half of this year.

In the first half of this year, nine metropolitan cities and provinces including Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Chungnam, Jeonnam, and Jeju recorded that one out of every 100 ambulance teams was re-transferred.

Assembly member Shin said, “It appears that the number of 119 ambulance re-transfers increased in the first half of this year due to the impact of COVID-19,” and added, “We need to establish a system that can separate the routes of patients suspected of infectious diseases from those of non-infectious disease patients, and reform the system so that critically ill patients can receive emergency treatment and hospital admission quickly.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.