Government Holds 3rd Task Force Meeting on Expanding Hospital Beds: "6944 Beds to be Added by the End of This Month"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The government announced on the 7th that it held the 3rd meeting of the 'Bed Expansion Task Force (TF)' chaired by Presidential Chief of Staff Yoo Young-min.

The Bed Expansion TF was formed based on a special directive from President Moon Jae-in on the 20th of last month, with Chief Yoo as the team leader, involving various ministries such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and private sector participants including the Seoul National University Hospital director.

At this 3rd meeting, the TF reviewed the bed expansion achievements since its formation. As a result of steadily implementing bed expansion, 2,238 beds were added by the end of last month. This figure corresponds to 99.2% of the target set in the 'Additional Bed Expansion and Operation Plan for Overcoming the Daily Recovery Crisis' announced on the 22nd of last month.

Additionally, 616 beds have been expanded this year up to this date, securing a total of 2,854 additional beds since the 22nd of last month.

With the expansion of beds and a decrease in confirmed cases, the bed occupancy rate, which fluctuated between 60% and 70%, has stabilized, showing less than 50% occupancy across all severity levels as of the 7th. The issue of bed waiting, which exceeded 800 people in mid-last month, has also been resolved, and since December 28th, there have been no patients waiting more than one day for a bed. To ensure the prompt operation of secured beds, a total of 3,979 medical personnel have been dispatched (as of the 6th).

Living treatment centers have also expanded by 2,546 beds (105.6% of the target), and base living treatment centers to strengthen medical capacity have increased by 1,044 beds (93.6% of the target). Since the introduction of the home treatment principle in November last year, the proportion of confirmed patients assigned to home treatment has increased to over 60%. Additionally, 317 medical institutions managing infrastructure for smooth medical service provision and 37 outpatient treatment centers have been secured.

Meanwhile, following requests from national university hospitals, improvements in urban planning systems are being pursued, such as easing floor area ratio restrictions on infectious disease management facilities to facilitate the smooth installation of modular negative pressure beds. Institutional improvements reflecting field opinions, such as additional recruitment of internal medicine and emergency medicine residents to secure infectious disease specialists, are also actively underway.

The government stated, "Although bed conditions have improved, considering the possibility of the Omicron variant outbreak, the situation remains uncertain," and added, "We plan to continue efforts to expand the target number of beds (6,944 beds) by the end of this month without complacency over the bed expansion achievements."

To this end, continuous monitoring will be conducted to ensure beds are operational within this month, and active consultations and encouragement with local governments and individual hospitals will be pursued. Additionally, a local government expansion target system will be introduced to allow flexible expansion within regional target beds according to conditions.

Going forward, the government plans to promptly establish bed operation conditions such as equipment and medical personnel support by daily checking the performance according to the weekly expansion plan centered on the 'Emergency Bed Expansion and Medical Response Promotion Team' led by Minister of Health and Welfare Kwon Deok-cheol.

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