Ministry of Health to Develop Comprehensive Measures Regarding Nurse Death at Asan Hospital

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it will prepare measures to expand essential medical services following the incident in which a nurse at Seoul Asan Medical Center collapsed and died from a cerebral hemorrhage while on duty.

On the 5th, Son Young-rae, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, stated, "We are preparing comprehensive measures to expand and strengthen essential medical services that are absolutely necessary but have not been smoothly provided due to various difficult conditions."

Spokesperson Son added, "We are reviewing multifaceted plans focusing on various financial support measures including compensation, and practical reinforcement plans for medical personnel and clinical sites," and "we are also gathering opinions from experts in the field and various stakeholders such as medical organizations."

Earlier, on the 24th of last month, Nurse A, in her 30s, at Seoul Asan Medical Center showed symptoms of headache shortly after starting her shift and collapsed due to cerebral hemorrhage. She was moved to the emergency room on the first floor of the building, but there was no neurosurgeon available in the hospital at that time to perform surgery. She was then transferred to Seoul National University Hospital but ultimately passed away.

Seoul Asan Medical Center explained that the medical staff capable of performing the related surgery were on leave and located far away, making it unavoidable to transfer the patient to a hospital where surgery was possible.

The National Health and Medical Industry Labor Union stated in a press release on the 3rd, "This incident once again confirmed that even the country's top tertiary general hospital cannot handle emergency surgeries for its own staff due to a shortage of doctors," and emphasized, "The number of medical school admissions must be significantly increased according to demand, and the training process should be restructured to ensure responsibility for essential medical services such as emergency and trauma care."

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