The Ministry of Health and Welfare said on the 18th that last year it transported 1,414 severe emergency patients using the emergency medical helicopter "doctor helicopter" and ambulances dedicated to critical patients.
A doctor helicopter refers to a helicopter on which a specialist boards to perform emergency procedures and quickly transport patients to a medical institution where they can be treated. It is used in areas such as islands and mountainous regions where vehicle access is difficult or when traffic congestion is severe.
There are currently eight doctor helicopters operated by the Ministry. The doctor helicopters transported a total of 1,075 severe emergency patients to hospitals last year, including 515 with severe trauma and 163 with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease. Since operations began in 2011 through last year, the cumulative number of transported patients has totaled 16,057.
An ambulance dedicated to critical patients is equipped with the necessary devices to transfer severe patients and carries a dedicated medical team, including a physician, to provide medical services. It has been piloted in Gyeonggi Province since the end of 2024.
Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital has deployed ambulances dedicated to critical patients and organized a dedicated medical team responsible for transporting severe patients, operating a 24-hour on-call transfer system. Since full-scale operations began last year, it has transported 339 severe patients, including newborns.
The Ministry plans to add one doctor helicopter and one ambulance dedicated to critical patients this year.
Lee Jung-gyu, director of public health policy at the Ministry, said, "While adding one doctor helicopter this year, we plan to replace two small helicopters with medium-sized ones to improve flight capacity," adding, "We will also add one ambulance dedicated to critical patients to strengthen the transfer system for severe emergency patients."