The National Fire Agency said on the 5th that it is operating a nationwide transport system centered on the Central 119 Emergency Medical Control Center to solve the "ER pinball (the problem of delays in admitting patients to hospitals)" for high-risk pregnant patients.
An emergency medical control center guides paramedics or callers in first aid and selects a hospital to which the patient will be transported.
Previously, the Regional 119 Emergency Medical Control Centers, set up under the 119 general situation rooms of each city and provincial fire headquarters, handled the task of selecting hospitals for patient transport.
However, as cases of delays in transporting high-risk pregnant patients have recently continued, the National Fire Agency changed the transport system so that, for high-risk pregnant patients only, the central control center directly secures hospitals on a nationwide basis.
At about 4 a.m. on the 28th, at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, a mother showed suspected symptoms of amniotic fluid embolism accompanied by decreased consciousness and massive bleeding right after childbirth. Immediately after the report was received, the National Fire Agency's central control center intervened and urgently transported the mother to a tertiary hospital in Seoul.
On the night of the 3rd, in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong, there was also a case in which a mother in critical condition was transported a long distance and handed over to a hospital.
However, on the 1st in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, a pregnant person at 29 weeks could not find a hospital for delivery and, with help from the central control center, was transported to Dong-A University Hospital in Busan, but the fetus ultimately died.
In February in Daegu, a mother of twins showing preterm labor symptoms was moved to a Seoul metropolitan area hospital after about four hours, but one fetus died and the other suffered brain damage.