119 Ambulance Dispatches in the Past 5 Years, Averaging 9,892 Cases per Day

Fire Agency Publishes Quality Management Report

The National Fire Agency announced the analysis results of emergency medical service activities from 2018 to 2022 on the 3rd through the ‘2023 119 Emergency Medical Service Quality Management Report.’ According to the ‘2023 119 Emergency Medical Service Quality Management Report,’ the average daily number of ambulance dispatches nationwide over the past five years (2018?2022) was 9,892, and the average daily number of transports reached 5,470.

Based on the detailed status tables of the four major critical diseases prepared by paramedics, the number of cardiovascular disease patients increased by 1.4 times and cerebrovascular disease patients by 4.3 times compared to 2018. When analyzed based on ambulance logs, in 2022, patients with the four major critical emergency diseases accounted for 33.6% of all transported patients, including 1.8% cardiac arrest patients, 10.3% cardiovascular disease patients, 19.9% cerebrovascular disease patients, and 1.6% severe trauma patients.

The National Fire Agency, together with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine, started the ‘119 Paramedic Scope of Work Expansion Pilot Project’ in July 2019, beginning in Seoul, to enable paramedics to perform specialized emergency treatments for critically ill patients. The project was expanded nationwide in December of the same year. Based on the verified safety and effectiveness of the pilot project, on December 8 last year, the partial amendment to the ‘Act on 119 Rescue and Emergency Medical Services,’ which includes the expansion of the scope of work for 119 paramedics as a key provision, passed the National Assembly plenary session, laying the foundation for legal grounds to expand their scope of work.

Going forward, the National Fire Agency plans to strengthen the response capabilities for critically ill patients by expanding the scope of work for emergency medical technicians among paramedics through the enforcement rules of the ‘Emergency Medical Service Act’ in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and expanding the scope of work for nurses through the enforcement decree of the ‘Act on 119 Rescue and Emergency Medical Services.’

Kim Tae-han, head of the 119 Emergency Medical Service Division at the National Fire Agency, stated, “With the expansion of the emergency treatment scope, the operational foundation has been established for 119 paramedics to provide emergency care at the level of advanced countries.” He added, “To improve the survival rates of patients with critical emergency diseases, we will strengthen specialized emergency treatment education for paramedics and respond with high-quality emergency medical services to protect the lives of the public through systematic emergency service quality management.”

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