Fire Commissioner Addresses 'Emergency Room Roundabout' Controversy: "Strengthening Ambulance Situation Centers for Active Hospital Selection"

The Commissioner of the National Fire Agency stated regarding the controversy over ambulance crews being forced to circle emergency rooms amid a medical service gap, "To resolve this, we have reinforced the personnel at the 119 Emergency Situation Management Center (Emergency Situation Center) and instructed them to actively select hospitals."

Commissioner Heo Seok-gon explained at the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee audit on the 10th, in response to questions about ambulance re-transfers, "Special cases related to this are occurring about two to three times a day, mainly in the metropolitan area and large cities," and said they are responding accordingly.

Fire Commissioner Heo Seok-gon.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

He added, "We have reinforced the Emergency Situation Center so that ambulance crews can focus solely on emergency treatment, which has doubled the workload of the center. We are consulting with the Ministry of Health and Welfare regarding this and continuously holding meetings with ambulance crews to identify difficulties and reflect them in policies."

Regarding the request from Democratic Party lawmaker Yang Bu-nam to compile statistics on calls made to emergency rooms in addition to the actual number of patients transported to hospitals to assess the impact of the medical crisis, Commissioner Heo responded, "We will consider it."

On criticism that the directive to refrain from media responses related to the 'medical crisis' was excessive, he stated, "It was a general and comprehensive request related to duty. Many institutions and stakeholders participate in transporting and treating emergency patients, and there may be hospital situations unknown to ambulance crews, so this measure was taken to provide more accurate information."

Meanwhile, regarding electric vehicle fires, Commissioner Heo said, "We are reinforcing equipment capable of quickly extinguishing fires at fire stations nationwide," and added, "In the first half of next year, unmanned firefighting equipment will be deployed to fire stations across the country."

He further stated, "Sprinklers are very effective equipment that can prevent the spread of fire if activated early," and "We are strongly promoting improvements to the sprinkler system, which plays a crucial role in early fire suppression."

In response to criticism that there is no obligation to install firefighting facilities at ground-level electric vehicle charging stations, he explained, "For ground fires as well, we are steadily promoting measures such as installing CCTV, fire extinguishers, and covers through ordinances established by local governments."

Regarding fire response to batteries such as lithium batteries, he revealed, "We established type approval standards for metal fires (magnesium) in July, and plan to enact standards for potassium and calcium by the end of the year."

Commissioner Heo also addressed criticism that foreign companies like Apple do not cooperate in emergency rescue disaster location confirmation requested by third parties, stating, "We continuously request cooperation every year through the Emergency Location Information Quality Council organized by the Korea Communications Commission."