More ERs cut nighttime operations during Chuseok

Medical workers pass by an emergency center in Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap)

More emergency departments are suspending nighttime operations or providing services during the upcoming Chuseok holiday due to severe workforce shortages, despite efforts to recruit additional staff and the deployment of military physicians to mitigate disruptions.

Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, notified patients that it would only admit patients needing around-the-clock cardiopulmonary resuscitation or those in severe conditions from 7 a.m. every Thursday to 7 a.m. the following Friday starting this week.

The decision was made to reduce the workload of workers reeling from the absence of interns and residents while opening the emergency department for patients, according to the hospital.

Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital on Tuesday announced an indefinite suspension of respiratory care in its pediatric emergency center as only one medical professor is working there. The hospital also informed patients that ultrasound and imaging tests are unavailable after regular working hours, on weekends and on holidays.

Konkuk University Chungju Hospital, Kangwon National University Hospital and Chungnam National University Sejong Hospital have been working below capacity since this week by reducing nighttime and weekend operations. St. Mary's Hospital in Yeouido is mulling whether to close nighttime operations during the holiday period.

To minimize the medical disruption at hospitals grappling with shortages in resources and staff, the government deployed 15 military physicians at five medical institutions on Wednesday. Eight of them are emergency medicine physicians, according to the Health Ministry.

However, doctor-turned-lawmaker Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the ruling People Power Party criticized the government for "denying the reality" where ER operations face challenges.

"Officials should either spend at least half a day in the ER or, at the very least, experience riding an ambulance (to understand the difficulties)," he wrote on his Facebook.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo refuted the claim during a radio interview with CBS late Tuesday, saying medical institutions are "not in the situation of collapsing in the immediate future."

"Collapse (in health care) means a situation where medical institutions shut down and cannot treat patients. Using such expression only increases public anxiety, and it's not appropriate to use the word (when referring to the current state of ER operations)," Park underscored.