[Anchor]
Seven out of nine specialist doctors at Ajou University Hospital's Pediatric Emergency Center have expressed their intent to resign. This comes as a protest against the police's recent forceful raid on the emergency center, and if it leads to actual resignations, it could create a massive vacuum in the regional emergency medical system.
Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has the story.
[Reporter]
This is the Pediatric Emergency Medical Center at Ajou University Hospital.
Nine specialist doctors work in shifts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to care for pediatric emergency patients.
However, seven specialists here, including the head of the center, expressed their intent to resign on the night of the 27th.
The catalyst was a case last July involving the death of a 4-month-old infant.
The baby, who showed symptoms of cyanosis, died while receiving emergency treatment from medical staff, and the police, having received a complaint from the bereaved family, raided the center on September 30.
The medical staff protested against what they called obstruction of treatment and being treated like Criminals, demanding an apology. However, it was reported that after the police investigation chief attending the parliamentary audit on the 27th maintained the stance that the investigation was inevitable, they ultimately expressed their intent to resign.
[Ham Young-wook / Head of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit at Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency (October 27, Parliamentary Audit): I truly feel regretful about the pain the medical staff must have experienced and the inconvenience caused to the patients.]
[Han Ji-a / Member of the People Power Party (October 27, Parliamentary Audit): They say their hands are shaking so much that they cannot provide treatment within the jurisdiction of that police agency.]
While actual resignation letters have not been submitted or accepted, the news of the mass resignations has shaken the regional medical community.
There are only 14 pediatric emergency centers nationwide.
Severe pediatric patients from Gangwon and North Chungcheong provinces, where there are none, also visit Ajou University Hospital. If this center fails to function properly, many children may find it difficult to receive timely treatment.
[Park Soo-hyun / Public Relations Director, Korean Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine: The collapse of a hub center that has been barely holding on could soon be a signal that the entire pediatric emergency medical network in the country is collapsing. (The medical staff) feel there is no longer any reason to hold on here...]
As the chasm of conflict deepens without proper investigation standards established for essential medical fields, patients' anxiety is also growing.
(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News)
(Video by Bae Moon-san | Video Editing by Lee So-young | Graphics by Im Chan-hyuk)
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