National Medical Center Director Seo Gil-jun says, “The central emergency medical center must become independent.”

“Local medical centers are collapsing… Admitted that the central medical center is lacking in its role”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Young-shin = National Medical Center Director Seo Gil-jun expressed his opinion on the 20th that the National Emergency Medical Center, currently under the National Medical Center, should be made independent.

Director Seo responded, "I agree in principle" when Rep. Seo Young-seok of the Democratic Party of Korea pointed out, "If the Central Emergency Medical Center is placed under the Central Medical Center, an emergency medical control tower cannot be established due to the structural limitations of the hospital organization and work," during a government audit held at the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee on this day.

Director Seo continued, “If the Central Emergency Medical Center is under the Central Medical Center, it is difficult to match the status of the National Fire Agency under the Ministry of Public Administration and Security,” and added, “I think it is right for the Central Emergency Medical Center to become independent because I think it should become the control tower of the emergency medical system.”

The Central Emergency Medical Center is responsible for evaluating emergency medical institutions nationwide, managing emergency transport, and providing education and training for emergency medical workers.

Rep. Seo Young-seok said, "The Central Emergency Medical Center started as an organization within the Central Medical Center in 2001, but over the past 25 years, the organization has grown significantly. It would be right to separate the emergency medical management organization and the provider organization to ensure independence and objectivity."

At the national inspection that day, Director Seo reflected on the Central Medical Center’s role in responding to the local and public medical crisis.

When Democratic Party lawmaker Lee In-young pointed out the issue of regional and public medical care, Director Seo said, "Currently, local medical centers and local public hospitals are collapsing. There are many gaps in local, essential, and public medical care," and "I honestly admit that the command and control tower has been absent, and the role of the central medical center has been insufficient."

He added, "It is true that the management conditions of local medical centers have worsened due to the coronavirus and legislative conflicts, but the local medical centers themselves are facing many problems in local medical demand, treatment capabilities, and management conditions." He added, "We will analyze the status of treatment and management conditions at local medical centers to come up with improvement tasks."