[2020 National Audit] 'Emergency Room in the Sky' Doctor Helicopter, 1 Out of 3 Requests Unable to Dispatch

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyun-ui Cho] The doctor helicopter, known as the "emergency room in the sky," has been unable to respond to one out of three dispatch requests over the past five years due to a shortage of helicopters.

According to data submitted by the National Medical Center to Kim Won-i, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of doctor helicopter dispatch requests surged by 46.6%, from 1,711 cases in 2016 to 2,508 cases last year.

However, out of 9,567 requests received, 30.2% (2,890 cases) were rejected or discontinued. The rejection and discontinuation rate decreased from 30.2% in 2016 to 27.3% in 2017, but then increased annually to 29.6% in 2018, 32.1% last year, and 33.5% as of June this year.

Excluding environmental issues such as weather (49.5%), the main reasons for the doctor helicopter's inability to dispatch were "performing other missions" (12.8%), "lack of mission time" (9.3%), and "disagreement on medical opinion" (7.6%).

Doctor helicopters are deployed one per each of the six regions to transport emergency patients. However, since one helicopter is responsible for a wide area, it is difficult to dispatch to all patients, leading to a high rejection and discontinuation rate.

Assemblyman Kim emphasized, "The dispatch rate of doctor helicopters, which are responsible for the golden time in emergencies in medically vulnerable areas such as islands and mountainous regions, is a very sensitive issue," adding, "Since the operation of doctor helicopters falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, additional deployment should be considered to ensure that emergency patients in medically vulnerable areas do not face medical gaps."

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