Seoul Medical Center Shares Experience in Responding to Emerging Infectious Diseases with Overseas Health Ministry Experts

Experts from Health Ministries of 7 Countries Including Vietnam and Ghana Tour Negative Pressure Isolation Beds and Regional Emergency Medical Centers
Show Interest in Seoul Medical Center's COVID-19 Response Facilities and Experience in Managing Emerging Infectious Diseases

Seoul Medical Center (Director Lee Hyun-seok) in Seoul Metropolitan City introduced facilities for responding to emerging infectious diseases and shared actual response experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic with health ministry experts from seven countries, including Ghana, on the 7th.

The trainees visiting Seoul Medical Center this time consisted of 14 experts from the health ministries of seven Asian and African countries?Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania?who participated in the ‘2023-24 Jong-wook Fellowship Program Infectious Disease Expert Course’ educational program operated by the Korea International Health and Medical Foundation under consignment to Yonsei University College of Medicine Tropical Medicine Research Institute.

With the help of the Infection Control Office at Seoul Medical Center, they conducted practical training on donning and doffing Level D protective gear as well as usage education. Afterwards, they toured the nationally designated inpatient treatment beds and the regional emergency medical center’s hyperbaric oxygen therapy room.

The overseas health ministry experts participating in this infectious disease response expert course showed great interest in the background and facilities of the nationally designated inpatient treatment beds at Seoul Medical Center, a representative public hospital of Seoul City, which respond to the inflow of emerging infectious diseases. They also paid close attention to the changes in hospital operation systems and the cooperation with local health care systems, as well as the sharing of experiences during the surge of infected patients in the COVID-19 period.

Choi Jae-pil, head of the Infection Control Office at Seoul Medical Center, emphasized, “Through the experience of responding to COVID-19, the issue is not where to isolate confirmed patients, but rather the possibility of a sustainable care system that can care for both patients infected with infectious diseases and the general public who are not infected.”

Seoul Medical Center has operated nationally designated inpatient treatment beds since the early domestic inflow of COVID-19 and was designated as an infectious disease specialized hospital in February 2020 when the first major outbreak occurred. It converted all beds to negative pressure isolation beds and treated COVID-19 patients. Until it was released from the specialized hospital status at the end of May 2022, it treated approximately 230,000 cumulative inpatients. Currently, all operations have normalized, and as a public hospital, it is doing its best to provide medical care to the local community and medically vulnerable patients.

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