As the number of cold patients in children increases during the changing seasons, pediatric clinics are ‘busy’ every day. From ‘open runs’, where people line up early in the morning before the hospital even opens, to double income couples who have to go to the ‘closed run’ to find a small section on for night treatment, the reduction in small office clinics. leading to a medical emergency.
On the 20th, at a small clinic in Gangnam-gu, the number of patients began to increase after 6:30, when night treatment began. The waiting area was already filled with guardians and sick children, leading to long lines outside the clinic. The waiting list for the patient who arrived at 7:00 to see the doctor was number 35.
Treatment ended at 8:30, but patients continued to be admitted for a period even after 8:00. The application was closed early, but we could not bear to tell the patients that it was closed due to the difficulties of the parents who came to the open appeal office and the clinic beyond the area.
Lee said that with the recent increase in the number of patients, 70 to 80 patients are seen a day on average.
The lights in the clinics in other small and medium clinics in Seocho-gu were not turned off until late at night. As it was not possible to receive all the patients who flocked to see night treatment, the request for an appointment for treatment had to be blocked. It was just after 5:00 PM by the time the reception closed. Complaints from patients and guardians who had no choice but to go back erupted from all over the place.
An official from the hospital said, “The number of patients increased rapidly during the change of season. The treatment hours are set, but it is not possible to receive patients without restriction,” he said. “Considering the quality of the treatment, we set the maximum number of patients that can be seen. Conflicts also arise with guardians who have to go to hospital and take a sick child back.”
The result of the reduction in appeals and clinics during the Corona 19 period leads to a medical crisis during the spread of epidemic infectious diseases such as the flu at the turn of the year. The number of appeals and clinics closed in 2020 was 154, which is more than the number of new openings (103). The situation did not improve in 2021. Compared to 93 new openings, 120 were closing, 1.3 times more.
In the long term, it is noted that if it becomes difficult to produce specialists due to a reduction in the application rate for small and medium majors, it is inevitable that the situation will get worse than at present. Although the government has established measures to improve the pediatric medical system, there is an opinion that improvement is needed to become an effective plan.
Park Yang-dong, chairman of the Children’s Hospital Association, said, “In order for the government’s measures to improve the pediatric medical system to be developed into an effective plan, there is a need to overhaul the evening supplement, public holidays and supplement totally sunday. system for pediatric treatment in all types of medical institutions, and introduce a pediatric penalty system according to age and hour “We need to re-establish the pediatric emergency care classification system which distributes the roles of medical institutions according to type according to the severity of the patient ,” he said.
