Government: "27% of Regional Emergency Medical Centers' Cases Are Mild or Non-Emergency... Implementing Support Project to Distribute Mild Patients"

'Formation of the Medical Dispute Mediation and Appraisal System Innovation TF'

On the 15th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced, "Although the proportion of mild and non-emergency patients at Regional Emergency Medical Centers has decreased, it still accounts for 27%," and added, "Starting today, the top-level emergency medical institutions, Regional Emergency Medical Centers, will implement the 'Mild Patient Dispersion Support Project' to focus treatment on severe emergency patients."

Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyu-hong is speaking while presiding over the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting related to the doctors' collective action held at the Seoul Government Complex on the 15th. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

Cho Kyu-hong, 1st Deputy Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) and Minister of Health and Welfare, held a CDSCH meeting at the Government Complex Seoul on the morning of the 15th and stated, "We will provide policy support funds for severity classification personnel so that Regional Emergency Medical Centers can promptly guide mild patients to nearby medical institutions to receive appropriate treatment." He also added, "We will reduce overcrowding in large hospital emergency rooms so that severe emergency patients can receive timely treatment at large hospitals."

The government said it will create treatment conditions so that public health doctors and military doctors deployed to fill vacancies in 20 tertiary general hospitals can closely cooperate with the dispatched hospitals and receive sufficient medical guidance and legal protection.

Additionally, legal issues arising during treatment will be protected by the dispatching institution in the same manner as for affiliated doctors.

Minister Cho said, "Medical institutions with liability insurance will renew contracts to include public health doctors and military doctors, and the government plans to support the additional insurance premiums incurred at this time," adding, "We ask the dispatched public health doctors and military doctors to perform their best in treating severe and emergency patients during national disaster situations with a sense of responsibility and mission as public officials and military personnel."

On the same day, the CDSCH also discussed measures to enhance the fairness and reliability of the medical dispute mediation and appraisal system. To this end, a 'Medical Dispute Mediation and Appraisal System Innovation Task Force' will be promptly formed.

Minister Cho stated, "Protecting patients and medical personnel from medical accidents is one of the four core tasks of medical reform," and added, "Along with enacting the Special Act on Medical Accident Handling, we will innovate the dispute mediation and appraisal system so that patients and medical personnel can sufficiently communicate and reach agreements before filing lawsuits."

Minister Cho further said, "We will actively strive to improve the fairness and objectivity of mediation and appraisal, simplify the mediation application procedures, and disclose necessary information such as medical dispute statistics and precedents to ensure that no cases go unprotected due to lack of awareness," and added, "We will gather opinions from all sectors to prepare concrete improvement measures."

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