Assemblyman Seo Samsuk Urgently Calls for Reinforcement and Deployment of Remote Emergency Medical System Staff to Save Island Residents' Lives

High Utilization of Remote Maritime Emergency Medical System in Island Areas, but Ship Deployment Rate Only 41%

Two-Thirds of Emergency Medical Technicians Assigned as Administrative Staff Despite On-Site Personnel Shortage

Remote Emergency

Democratic Party of Korea Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok (Yeongam·Muan·Sinan) ⓒ Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] There is a growing voice that the remote emergency medical system saving the lives of island residents living in poor medical environments needs many improvements.

On the 13th, Seo Sam-seok, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee (Democratic Party, Yeongam·Muan·Sinan), pointed out at the National Assembly's audit of the Korea Coast Guard, “There are many areas to improve in the remote emergency medical system that saves the lives of island residents in poor medical environments, and it is urgent to increase personnel and install and deploy the system on small vessels.”

Due to emergency patients occurring on islands and ships, a total of 2,422 emergency medical services have been utilized through the maritime remote emergency medical system over the past five years. Among these, the West Sea Regional Headquarters, which has many islands, accounted for more than half, with a utilization rate of 52% (1,250 cases). Considering the small population of island areas, this is a considerable level of utilization.

On the other hand, the system and personnel handling this are insufficient compared to the needs. Only 62 out of 150 vessels are equipped with emergency medical technicians, accounting for just 41%.

Furthermore, while the total authorized number of emergency medical technicians is 212, the actual number is 135, which is only two-thirds. In addition, the reality of insufficient field personnel and the fact that one-quarter of the staff are administrative employees have been pointed out as areas needing improvement.

The equipment is also insufficient. The current service life of equipment installed on vessels is only nine years, and except for 14 units installed on new vessels, all have exceeded their service life, causing frequent issues with image quality and software.

Moreover, most vessels without the current 'maritime remote emergency medical system' are small vessels, making it physically impossible to install the current system.

Regarding this, Assemblyman Seo Sam-seok strongly urged improvements to the maritime remote emergency medical system, saying, “This is a matter of life and death for island residents. To prevent the lack of basic medical environments from leading to disasters, it is necessary to increase the required personnel, prioritize deployment of field personnel, check and replace the service life of the remote emergency medical system, and improve the system so that it can be installed on small vessels.”

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