Emergency Medical Technicians Administer Drugs to Cardiac Arrest Patients in Emergencies... 333 Cases of Regulation Revisions

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The scope of emergency medical technicians' (EMTs) emergency treatment duties will expand to include administering drugs to cardiac arrest patients during emergencies. To alleviate labor shortages, the procedures for taking taxi and bus driver qualification exams will be simplified, and the 'grades and academic performance' requirement will be removed from the eligibility criteria for government-funded overseas study exams.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination announced on the 31st that the Regulatory Reform Committee reviewed a total of 1,755 regulations whose review deadlines were due this year, resulting in the revision of 333 regulations and the lifting of review deadlines for 229 regulations deemed to have no practical benefit for re-examination.

Among the major regulatory improvements, the expansion of EMTs' emergency treatment duties stands out. According to the current Enforcement Rules of the Emergency Medical Service Act, EMTs' emergency treatment duties are limited to four types of tasks under a doctor's supervision, such as maintaining respiration using a ventilator, and ten types of tasks that can be performed without specific instructions from a doctor, such as removing foreign objects from the oral cavity. The government plans to relax regulations to allow EMTs to administer drugs to cardiac arrest patients during emergencies. The Office for Government Policy Coordination explained, "Expanding the scope of tasks that EMTs can perform within their capabilities will help protect the lives and safety of the public."

Additionally, in response to criticism that the eligibility for government-funded overseas study exams only considers quantitative evaluations, the requirement for 'grades and academic performance (an average score of 70-80% or higher throughout the entire school curriculum)' will be removed by the first half of next year.

To address labor shortages among transportation workers in the passenger transport sector, the procedures for driver qualification exams will also be simplified. The prerequisite for applying for taxi (bus) driver qualification exams, which is passing the detailed driving aptitude test, will be required only before starting actual driving duties.

The scope of tenants eligible for support facilities in knowledge industry centers (large-scale apartment-style factories) will be expanded. In principle, all facilities will be eligible tenants, but 'negative regulation' will be applied by designating gambling businesses and entertainment facilities as restricted tenants.

To reduce the management burden on small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners, regulatory hurdles will be lowered, including a one-year grace period for installing automatic stack monitoring systems (TMS) on chimneys with three or fewer small emission outlets, and improvements to the penalty reduction criteria for construction contractors (applying penalty reductions for no-fatal accidents and implementing a penalty point accumulation reduction system).

The government plans to immediately begin revising related laws for regulatory improvements. The Office for Government Policy Coordination will shorten the implementation period through a comprehensive revision of enforcement ordinances and support each ministry to promptly complete amendments to laws, enforcement rules, and administrative regulations.

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