Seoul Asan Hospital Reduces Medical Services from the 4th... "Focusing on Severe, Emergency, and Rare Intractable Diseases"

"Unavoidable to Minimize Confusion in Medical Field"

Professors from the Emergency Response Committee (ERC) of Ulsan University College of Medicine, which trains at Seoul Asan Medical Center, will begin a rigorous reduction of medical services starting on the 4th. They argue that reducing treatment for mild patients is inevitable in order to focus on patients with severe, emergency, and rare incurable diseases.

Seoul Asan Medical Center, Songpa-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Seoul Asan Medical Center]

On the 3rd, the ERC issued a statement saying, "Professors at Seoul Asan Medical Center are doing their best under intense working conditions to ensure no disruption in the treatment of severe and emergency diseases during this national emergency caused by the government, but signs of medical collapse are appearing in various places."

They plan to focus treatment on severe patients such as cancer patients through selective care. The ERC stated, "According to the Cancer Registry Center, the number of cancer cases in 2021 was about 270,000, and 13% of these patients were treated at Asan Medical Center."

They added, "In the case of lung cancer, which has the highest mortality rate, about 3,200 cases were reported to the lung cancer registry at Seoul Asan Medical Center in 2021, but only about 1,100 patients were treated in the first six months of this year," expressing concern that "if this continues, avoidable mortality from lung cancer will inevitably increase, and the same applies to other severe diseases."

Accordingly, they emphasized that from the 4th, they will proceed with selective and rigorous reduction and readjustment of medical services. The ERC stated, "Until Korean healthcare normalizes, mild disease patients will be actively referred to primary and secondary hospitals, and treatment for patients under simple follow-up or those who can be managed by local healthcare will inevitably be reduced."

Based on their own calculations, they forecast that major surgeries on the 4th will decrease by 49% compared to the same period last year and by 29% compared to the previous week. Outpatient care will be reduced by 30.5% compared to the same period last year and by 17.2% compared to the previous week, while new patient treatments will decrease by 42.1% compared to the same period last year and by 16.5% compared to the previous week.

The ERC asked for understanding, saying, "This is an unavoidable choice to minimize confusion in the medical field triggered by the government's violent healthcare policy implementation," and urged, "Please refrain from making outpatient appointments for secondary opinions on already diagnosed diseases or for diseases that can be treated locally as much as possible."

They also urged, "The government should release statistics comparing normal medical conditions to the current situation to grasp the reality of cancer patients and severe and emergency diseases, and immediately implement rigorous policies to allow tertiary hospitals to focus on severe, emergency, and rare incurable diseases," and "Ban duplicate treatments at tertiary hospitals and immediately allocate the announced policies and budgets to prevent the ongoing collapse of local healthcare."

Furthermore, they demanded, "The government must guarantee the legitimate rights of residents and take measures to restore trust," warning, "If the government does not change, all indicators that once ranked high in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) statistics, boasting the highest standards, will plummet."