Patient Dies During Implant Procedure at Large Gangnam Dental Clinic

The Gangnam District Office in Seoul announced on August 25 that it conducted an on-site inspection immediately after learning about the deaths of two patients within an eight-month span at a large, low-cost dental clinic in Gangnam, and subsequently reported the findings to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

The district office stated that this incident exposed blind spots in the current medical accident information-sharing system and requested institutional improvements from the government.

Following the death of a patient who was receiving an implant procedure at Dental Clinic A in Gangnam on December 30 of last year, a similar fatal accident occurred at the same clinic on the 3rd of this month.

It was reported that the clinic used narcotic sedatives and local anesthetics during the treatment of the patients who died.

In response, during a meeting of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee on the 21st, People Power Party lawmaker Lee Sohee asked Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyeong whether the local public health center had inspected the clinic, to which Minister Jeong replied, "I will check."

In a press release issued that day, the Gangnam District Office stated, "Gangnam District did not receive a separate notice at the time of the first accident, and we first learned of the incident through media reports on January 26 of this year."

It added, "We subsequently included the medical institution in a planned joint inspection of dental clinics and hospitals with high usage of medical narcotics conducted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and Gangnam District, carrying out a joint inspection in February."

The district office stated that it also confirmed the second fatal accident through media reports on the 14th, and conducted an unannounced joint inspection of the dental clinic with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on the 18th—immediately following the Liberation Day holiday—submitting the results to the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 24th.

The district explained, "During the inspection, we checked the handling and storage of medical narcotics, the creation and preservation of medical records, medical personnel licenses and qualifications, and facility standards, but no specific violations were found."

The district pointed out that under the current system, even if a serious medical accident such as a patient death occurs at a clinic-level medical institution, there are limitations for local public health centers to identify the fact in real time.

Furthermore, it emphasized that the administrative inspections conducted by public health centers are procedures to verify compliance with laws such as the Medical Service Act and the Narcotics Control Act, which are distinct from investigations determining the causal relationship between a patient's death and medical practices or professional negligence by medical staff.

The Gangnam District Office argued that the current medical accident information-sharing system should be improved in light of this incident.

The district plans to propose to the Ministry of Health and Welfare that a system be established to promptly share and notify local governments when serious medical accidents occur at clinic-level medical institutions.

It also plans to request that operating room facility standards currently applied to general anesthesia be expanded to intravenous and sedation anesthesia, making it mandatory to equip patient monitoring devices and emergency treatment equipment.

To supplement existing biannual inspections, the district plans to conduct quarterly intensive inspections focusing on areas closely related to patient safety for medical institutions within its jurisdiction.

(Photo provided by Gangnam District Office, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.