Abuse against emergency room staff rises 21% in 3 years: data

South Korean emergency room medical staff have experienced increasing instances of physical and verbal abuse in recent years, government data showed Tuesday.

Doctors or nurses were subject to abuse from patients at emergency rooms 707 times in 2023, up from 602 in 2022 and 585 in 2021, according to Ministry of Health and Welfare data submitted to Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

Of the 707 cases for last year, 457 were related to verbal abuse. Physical violence was the next most frequent with 220 cases, followed by threat (51), destruction of equipment (34), and other forms of violence such as deception. All such instances are stipulated as forbidden action against emergency medical staff by Article 12 of the Emergency Medical Service Act.

The figure for the first half of this year was 360, with well over half of the cases (243) related to verbal abuse. There were also 82 cases of physical violence, 21 of threats and nine related to the destruction of equipment.

In April of this year, the husband of an emergency patient inflicted physical and verbal violence on a doctor at a hospital ER in Gangwon Province.

He reportedly called the doctor "chon-nom" -- a derogatory term roughly equivalent to "hick" in informal English -- while hitting the doctor on the chest. He was indicted for violating the Emergency Medical Service Act in April and is currently on trial.

Violating Article 12 is punishable by up to 5 years in prison or a 50 million won ($37,900) fine. While Article 6 of the act bans emergency medical personnel from blindly refusing medical services, it states that they can do so with "good cause."

Last month the ministry distributed its guide outlining when services can be denied, which included instances of physical violence, threats, damage to medical equipment or any action that hinders the emergency staff from performing necessary medical procedures.

"The law enforces strict punishment for threatening or physically abusing medical staff, but the situation remains dire. ... There needs to be a comprehensive measure (on the issue) such as a long-term survey on the safety of the medical staff," Kim said.