Korean Pediatric Hospital Association: "Moonlight Children's Hospitals Unable to Provide Nighttime Care on Holidays... Need to Reconsider Expanding to 100 Locations"

President Yoon Suk-yeol is speaking at a policy meeting on essential medical care, including pediatric treatment, held on the 22nd of last month at Seoul National University Children's Hospital in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The hospital community has called for a complete reconsideration of the expansion of the 'Dalbit Children's Hospital,' proposed by the government as one of the measures to strengthen essential pediatric and adolescent medical care. Since nighttime treatment on public holidays is virtually not being provided at Dalbit Children's Hospitals, more effective measures are needed.

On the 2nd, the Korean Association of Children's Hospitals issued a press release expressing regret and concern over the Ministry of Health and Welfare's announcement to expand the current 37 Dalbit Children's Hospitals to 100 by next year, stating, "We urge a full review of the purpose and operational tasks of Dalbit Children's Hospitals."

The association explained that more than 80% of patients with high fever, the current pediatric emergency room standard, are treated not at Dalbit Children's Hospitals but at most children's hospitals and primary care institutions nationwide. In particular, among the 37 Dalbit Children's Hospitals nationwide, only 5 (13.5%) provide nighttime treatment on public holidays, 9 (24.3%) on Saturdays, and 7 (18.9%) on Sundays, pointing out that these are so-called "nominal Dalbit Children's Hospitals."

The association stated, "The current perception of Dalbit Children's Hospitals seems to be a complacent one, thinking 'Isn't it enough just to issue prescriptions for antipyretics during nights and holidays?'" and questioned, "We want to ask whether there has ever been a single evaluation of the project since the system was introduced in 2014, regarding the achievement of the goal to alleviate overcrowding before emergency rooms, the role and performance in patient classification and transfer according to pediatric patient severity, resolution of regional distribution imbalance, low participation rates, and field opinions."

They further argued, "To ensure that President Yoon Seok-yeol's public remarks on pediatric emergency care and the Ministry of Health and Welfare's pediatric emergency system improvement plans develop in a more effective direction, a complete overhaul of the nighttime, public holiday, and Sunday additional payment system for pediatric care across all types of medical institutions, as well as the introduction of age- and time-based pediatric surcharges, is necessary."

Additionally, they demanded a redefinition of roles by institution type according to patient severity. The association proposed, "For example, tertiary general hospitals should handle severe patients (emergency rooms of regional emergency medical centers), children's hospitals should manage moderate severity cases as Dalbit Children's Hospitals (Urgency Clinics), and clinics should treat mild patients (Dalbit Clinics)." They also emphasized, "Since emergency treatment personnel are currently absolutely insufficient, to save more lives, the previously discarded role of 1339 should be restored, and the transfer system before hospital visits and inter-hospital transfer system should be strengthened."

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