Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said on the 22nd, "The issue of emergency rooms refusing patients, known as the 'ER ping-pong' problem, is a matter of nationwide concern and worry, and we must find an alternative one way or another."
Kim stated accordingly in his opening remarks at a field meeting with 119 paramedics held at the Jongno Fire Station in Seoul that night.
Kim said, "Even recently, there have been continued heartbreaking cases in which people could not reach the emergency room in time, searched for an emergency room, and lost their lives because consolidation could not be made." He cited as an example a recent case in Busan in which a 10-year-old girl was refused admission by 12 hospitals and was barely transferred and treated.
Kim also said, "The worry about the problem is so serious that the government is trying to find alternatives, but it is not easy," adding, "We have held two or three recent meetings to hear the views of firefighters and also the hospitals, but it seems the gap between positions is not narrowing well."
He went on, "Thinking that we must find an alternative, I thought it would be good to listen to the words of the personnel on site who keep watch during the most urgent hours for emergency patients, so I came to the fire station today."
Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung, at a Ministry of Health and Welfare work briefing on the 16th, pointed out the ER ping-pong problem and ordered that countermeasures be prepared and reported.