Starting Today, Three 'Weekend Duty Hospitals' Operated in the Seoul Metropolitan Area ... Responding to High-Risk Patients

Starting on the 20th, priority allocation to mothers, infants, patients with severe diseases, and emergency surgery patients at
National Medical Center, Samsung Seoul Hospital, and Hanyang University Hospital

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] To ensure that severe COVID-19 patients can be quickly assigned hospital beds even on weekends, 'duty hospitals' will operate in the Seoul metropolitan area. On the 20th, the first duty will be assigned to the National Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, and Hanyang University Hospital.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 20th, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters for COVID-19 discussed the operation plan for weekend duty hospitals in the metropolitan area at a meeting on the 17th and will implement it starting this weekend.

Although there is still some capacity in COVID-19 hospital bed utilization rates, concerns have been raised that high-risk pregnant women, infants, patients with severe underlying conditions, and those requiring emergency surgery are not being promptly assigned beds during weekends or holidays, leading to this decision.

Accordingly, the government has decided that from the 20th to September 25th, for six weeks, tertiary general hospitals in the metropolitan area will operate weekend duty hospitals for severe cases.

First, after consultations with medical institutions, the National Medical Center and three of the 17 tertiary general hospitals operating designated COVID-19 beds in the metropolitan area were designated as weekend duty hospitals with six beds. There are 11 in Seoul, 4 in Gyeonggi, and 3 in Incheon.

Each bed will prioritize patients requiring intensive care in the ICU, those needing emergency surgery, and pregnant women and infants. The operation period is six weeks but may be extended depending on the COVID-19 epidemic situation.

Park Hyang, head of the Central Accident Response Headquarters' quarantine team, said, "Although beds for special patients such as pregnant women and children are designated and operated, we are operating weekend duty hospitals for severe patients in preparation for the continuous increase in confirmed cases. We will carefully monitor and reinforce on-site situations so that ambulance teams and hospital emergency rooms can share bed information as quickly as possible."

Regarding concerns that operating weekend duty hospitals mainly in the metropolitan area might weaken the response to severe patients in non-metropolitan areas, Park explained, "In non-metropolitan areas, if the issue cannot be resolved within the respective region, the information network is operated so that bed assignments can be made beyond the region."

Currently, the government expects that this COVID-19 resurgence will peak within 200,000 new daily cases this month and then slowly decline. Multiple research teams predict that the epidemic will peak at a minimum of 120,000 and a maximum of 332,000 daily cases in mid to late this month before turning to a downward trend. The quarantine authorities anticipate that increased mobility during the summer vacation and the Liberation Day holiday period will continue to affect the epidemic trend for some time.

Meanwhile, as of midnight the previous day, the number of new confirmed cases was 138,812, pushing the cumulative confirmed cases beyond 22 million. Nationwide, the number of critically ill patients reached 492, and deaths increased to 83, marking the highest in 112 days. As of 9 p.m. the previous day, new confirmed cases were 124,891, slightly decreasing compared to the day before.