Emergency Medical Center Faces Claims of Calls from ICU Phone
National Revolutionary Party States "Contracted Service Provider Responsible"
"Considering Excluding Them"
Heo Kyung-young, Honorary Representative of the National Revolutionary Party, held a presidential election candidacy declaration ceremony and performed in front of the Haengju Fortress Great Victory Gate in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province on the 18th. Representative Heo pledged that if elected president, within two months of taking office, he would give 100 million won per person to all citizens aged 18 and over, and provide a monthly national dividend of 1.5 million won. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] Citizens' complaints are growing due to vote encouragement calls from Heo Kyung-young, the presidential candidate of the National Revolutionary Party. The calls come incessantly at all hours, and recently, claims have emerged that calls were even made to emergency medical center phones where every second counts, spreading public opinion that these calls are a 'nuisance.'
On the 12th, a post appeared on 'Twitter' stating, "A call from Heo Kyung-young came to the regional emergency medical center's work phone."
The author of the tweet, Mr. A, said, "A call came to the emergency medicine specialist transfer hotline work cell phone. On a weekend when I was extremely busy, I almost threw the phone," and expressed frustration, saying, "Mr. Heo Kyung-young, you are free to do PR, but if you call even places like this, I will vote for you or not."
Another netizen, Mr. B, who saw the post, appealed, "One weekend afternoon, within about an hour, 10 out of 15 phones in our intensive care unit rang with calls from Heo Kyung-young," adding, "Patients don't suddenly get up and go home just because it's the weekend, and we were so busy that it was extremely annoying."
In addition, claims continued that "Heo Kyung-young's calls interfered with medical work." Netizens shared their experiences, saying, "When I worked at a vaccination center, calls came there too," and "Calls were made to the trauma center call center as well."
Recently, some netizens have claimed that "Heo Kyung-young calls" have been made even to medical institutions where every second counts, such as intensive care units. / Photo by 'Twitter' capture
The Heo Kyung-young calls start with the phone number prefix 02-780 and are presidential election vote encouragement calls. When answered, the message says, "Hello. This is presidential candidate Heo Kyung-young. How hard has it been for you lately due to COVID-19?"
Candidate Heo appears to be sending these calls as part of his presidential election strategy. Previously, during the April 15 general election last year, Heo's team also sent out vote encouragement calls.
When the calls were first sent, 'proof shots' appeared on SNS and online communities with people saying, "I also received a call." However, as the calls became excessively frequent, some netizens expressed dissatisfaction, calling them a 'nuisance.'
Some even raised suspicions that personal information such as citizens' phone numbers might have been leaked, as the calls reportedly reached elementary school students who do not have voting rights.
However, the National Revolutionary Party explained that the 'Heo Kyung-young calls' are made by an external service company contracted by them, and there is absolutely no issue of illegal personal information collection.
According to multiple media reports on the 13th, the National Revolutionary Party stated, "Since we contracted with a service company, we did not know calls were going to external medical centers. If it is possible within the system, we will consider improvements to exclude such cases," emphasizing, "There is absolutely no illegal collection of personal information."
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