Mask wearing at hospitals to be deregulated A medical worker wearing a mask walks past a notice regarding mask-wearing guidelines at a university hospital in Daegu, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on April 30, 2024, one day prior to the deregulation of mandatory mask wearing at hospitals in more than four years after the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic in the country. (Yonhap)
This is pretty ridiculous that these doctor trainees are vowing to go on strike because of the government’s increase in medical students in order to address a shortage of doctors:
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo (R) speaks at an emergency meeting with ministers at the government complex in central Seoul on Feb. 19, 2024. (Yonhap)
Trainee doctors began submitting their letters of collective resignation Monday in protest against the government’s plan to boost the number of medical students, while the health ministry ordered all of them to keep providing medical treatment.
Worries mounted as doctors warn of a large-scale strike and other responses in opposition to the government’s decision to add 2,000 to the country’s medical school enrollment quota next year, marking a sharp rise from the current 3,058 seats.
Although the government had initially played down the possibility of doctors’ collective action, it is feared the nation will suffer substantial disruptions to its medical service, with some patients already experiencing delays in surgeries and other treatments in hospitals.
You can read more at the link, but the ROK government is ordering the trainees to continue to provide medical services. If they do walkout it will be interesting to see if the government revokes their medical licenses thus ending their careers in medicine.
North Korean authorities recently launched an investigation at the Myohyangsan (Mount Myohyang) Medical Applicances Factory after it was found that medical devices distributed to hospitals nationwide have not been working properly. https://t.co/MMxMubVYQjpic.twitter.com/ZhzLTZaqIL
Pretty soon there are going to be surveillance cameras everywhere. If this bill passes you won’t even be able to get a colonoscopy without a camera looking up your rear end:
Medical personnel talk in an operating room equipped with surveillance cameras at Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Suwon Hospital, Monday. The provincial government has installed surveillance cameras in operating rooms at government-run hospitals. Yonhap
Doctors are strongly protesting a contentious bill that will mandate the installation of surveillance cameras in operating rooms as a part of measures to prevent medical malpractice.
Citing the possibility of the surveillance affecting doctors’ surgical procedures and the leakage of video recordings, the nation’s largest doctors’ group said it will seek a constitutional petition if the bill is approved.
Their protest came after the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee passed the revision bill to the Medical Service Act, Monday. The Assembly plans to approve it at a plenary session on Wednesday.
According to the bill, hospitals must video-record medical procedures upon the patient’s or guardian’s request when an operation is conducted while the patient is unconscious such as under anesthesia. They have to save the recording for more than 30 days for future reference in case of legal disputes, and viewing the recording will be allowed upon request by an investigative body or a court, or when the patient and the hospital agree.
N.K. leader inspects hospital construction site North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) talks to North Korean officials as he inspects the construction site of a general hospital in Pyongyang, in this photo provided by the Korean Central News Agency on July 20, 2020. He was accompanied by Kim Yo-jong (in circle), his younger sister and first vice department director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Here is a very odd story of a son’s body being used as a bargaining chip for payment by a Seoul hospital:
Gregory Allen, 31, was a child and youth program assistant at the Child Development Center on Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South Korea. His parents said they struggled to retrieve his body after he died on Jan. 2 during open-heart surgery at a South Korean hospital.
An Alabama couple was locked in a web of bureaucracy as they fought for a week to retrieve their son’s body after he died Jan. 2 in a South Korean hospital, leaving a $24,000 bill for his care.
Gregory Allen, a 31-year-old civilian employee at the Child Development Center on the Army’s Yongsan Garrison, died during open-heart surgery after he arrived on Dec. 30 at Soon Chun Hyang University hospital in Seoul in a disoriented state.
Allen’s parents flew to Seoul as soon as they heard Gregory had fallen ill and found him on Jan. 1 the intensive care unit. The official cause of death was pulmonary embolism, his parents said.
“We were shocked,” said his father, Leroy Allen Jr., a retired soldier from Madison, Ala., who had served in South Korea.
He and his wife, Margie, had little time to grieve. They said hospital officials handed them the bill and demanded payment before Gregory’s body would be released.
They gave the hospital $3,000 but didn’t have the rest. Gregory Allen’s insurance policy covered 80% of the cost, but it took time to process the claim.
“This was like 3 o’clock in the morning and they’re asking me for $21,000,” Gregory’s father told Stars and Stripes in an interview Tuesday. “Now they’re charging 90,000 won (about $80) every day that he’s sitting in that freezer in that hospital until that $21,000 is paid off.”
A car sits damaged after crashing into the lobby of a hospital in the southeastern city of Changwon on Nov. 2, 2018, in this photo released by the Changwon police. No one was hurt from the car crash. Police believe that the driver caused the accident through poor driving. (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see if this was just some kind of sad coincidence or whether some kind of bacteria or mechanical function of the equipment used for pre-mature babies is to blame:
Chung Hye-won, director of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Ewha Womans University Medical Center in western Seoul, apologizes in a press briefing at the hospital on Sunday for the deaths of four newborn babies at the hospital on Saturday night. [YONHAP]Four newborn babies died within a two-hour span at Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Seoul on Saturday night. Authorities are investigating the cause.“We apologize to the relatives of the babies and to everyone in this country,” said Chung Hye-won, director of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital, in a press briefing at the hospital on Sunday. “Four babies being treated at the intensive care unit for the newborns at the hospital suffered sudden cardiac arrest at differing times, starting from around 5:40 p.m. on Saturday.
“We tried to revive the babies through CPR but could not,” she said. “The hospital is working with public health centers and authorities to find out the cause of their deaths. We apologize again to the relatives for this unfortunate and rare incident and promise to do our best to find out the cause behind it.”
Authorities requested the National Forensic Service conduct autopsies on the four dead infants to find out the cause of their deaths. The autopsies are scheduled to be held Monday morning. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but regardless of the cause it is a very sad day and condolences to all the parents involved.
This is absolutely ridiculous that nurses had to subject to this. I wonder how prevalent this exploitation of nurses is in South Korea’s hospitals?:
Nurses are up in arms over allegations that their colleagues at the Sacred Heart Hospital at Hallym University were forced to perform a “sexy dance” at an internal event.
The Korean Nurses Association vented its fury on Monday, calling for a thorough investigation and merciless punishment of those responsible.
“This is a grave challenge to the vocation and self-esteem of nurses,” the association said in a statement.
“There are numerous nurses who endure an intense workload, low paycheck and frequent overtime with their sense of duty and vocation.
“Considering this, the scandal was defamatory and offensive to these nurses.”
The association urged the government to tighten regulations to prevent sexual offenses against nurses and to protect their human rights.
The scandal flared up last week after a nurse posted a letter of complaint on social media with photos of nurses in short pants and figure-hugging tube tops performing a sexually suggestive dance during an annual sports event in October.
“Those forced to dance are usually the newly hired nurses, who are unable to refuse such orders,” the whistle-blowing nurse wrote on social media on Friday.
“We were forced to dance in front of high-ranking officials of the firm, who sat side-by-side at a long table.” [Korea Times]
