[Anchor]

Gyeonggi Province's Ansan City has been operating "Moonlight Children's Hospitals" since May, providing nighttime care. Two local hospitals have joined forces to run the facility in an alliance format, which is receiving a warm response from citizens as it enters its fourth month.

Reporter Choi Ho-won has the details.

[Reporter]

This is Danwon Hospital, a general hospital in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

Since late May, it has extended its weekday operating hours until 11 p.m., operating as a "Moonlight Children's Hospital."

Children suffering from high fevers at night can now receive emergency treatment and hospitalization.

[Jung Hwa-young / Ansan Resident: I came around 10 p.m. for treatment, and although the doctor's shift was originally scheduled until 11 p.m., they saw patients right up until the end and treated us late, around 11:30 p.m. I am so grateful.]

Moonlight Children's Hospitals are designated medical facilities where children and adolescents can receive outpatient care from pediatric specialists on weekday nights and holidays, with 155 locations designated nationwide.

In the case of Ansan, there had previously been no such hospitals, forcing parents to travel with their sick children to Seoul, Incheon, Suwon, and other areas in search of medical care.

[Kwon Yong-soon / Head of Pediatric and Adolescent Center, Ansan Danwon Hospital: There are children who cannot come during regular weekday operating hours, and many patients who would otherwise have had to go to the emergency room if our nighttime clinic did not exist.]

The establishment of the "Moonlight Children's Hospital" in Ansan was made possible by collaboration between two hospitals.

After a pediatric and adolescent clinic in Gojan-dong began providing holiday care last year, Danwon Hospital additionally took on weekday nighttime care.

[Lee Min-keun / Mayor of Ansan: For Ansan to become a healthy city, many young people with families need to move here. In that process, we opened this Moonlight Children's Hospital through Danwon Hospital to capture the perspective of what parents worry about the most.]

However, the hospital side requested that patients with mild symptoms utilize regular operating hours whenever possible to prevent an excessive burden on nighttime medical staff.

(Video by: Jang Woon-seok, Footage courtesy of: Ansan City Hall)