Emergency Personnel 'Nationwide Lowest' Gyeonggi Fire Department, 'Nationwide Highest' in Dispatches... Severe Staffing Shortage

Physical and Mental Fatigue of Paramedics Increases... Leading to Harm to Emergency Patients

2021 Nationwide Ambulance Crew of Three Occupancy Rate [Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] While the number of emergency medical service (EMS) dispatches in Gyeonggi-do is the highest nationwide, the rate of firefighters riding in EMS teams remains among the lowest in the country, revealing a severe manpower shortage in Gyeonggi-do's fire services.

In April 2020, the government transitioned firefighters from local government officials to national public officials and increased the number of public servant hires. However, the three-person EMS team boarding rate in Gyeonggi-do remained the lowest nationwide, showing a significant gap compared to other metropolitan cities and provinces.

According to last year's nationwide three-person EMS team status from the provincial fire headquarters, Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Ulsan, Chungbuk, Chungnam, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam, Gyeongbuk, and Jeju all have a 100% three-person EMS team boarding rate.

Following are Gyeongnam at 98.9%, Incheon at 96.6%, Gangwon at 96.4%, Daejeon at 93.5%, Ulsan at 92.6%, Changwon at 84%, and Gyeonggi at 39.6%.

Gyeonggi-do shows more than twice the difference compared to Changwon, which is in the lowest tier, clearly indicating an imbalance in fire personnel allocation.

EMS dispatches account for over 80% of all fire service dispatches. Last year, nationwide fire dispatches numbered about 36,000, whereas EMS dispatches exceeded approximately 3.14 million, about 87 times the number of fire dispatches.

Among these, EMS dispatches in Gyeonggi-do accounted for about 740,000, or 22.9% of the total, marking the highest number of dispatches nationwide.

The nationwide lowest EMS personnel imbalance in Gyeonggi-do is reflected in the three-person EMS team boarding rate, leading to increased physical and mental fatigue among EMS personnel and resulting in harm to patients who are the recipients of EMS services.

A fire official from the province expressed concern, stating, "With the population growth trend in Gyeonggi-do and the retirement of the baby boomer generation, EMS dispatches will increase further, and due to the shortage of EMS personnel, damage to residents is expected."

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