[Anchor]

A medical volunteer team consisting of medical staff and students from a local university hospital has visited Deokjeokdo Island in Incheon, where medical infrastructure is limited.

Reporter Song In-ho covered the scene of a group that has been caring for the health of residents in medically underserved areas and islands in Incheon for over 60 years.

[Reporter]

A temporary clinic has been set up in a high school auditorium.

It resembles a general hospital, offering services ranging from internal medicine to ophthalmology, dermatology, orthopedics, and rehabilitation medicine.

Equipped with a pharmacy, an ultrasound room, and even an oriental medicine treatment room, the facility has been bustling with patients since early this morning.

[Yeo Ji-na / Professor of Rheumatology, Gachon University Gil Medical Center: Do you use your hands a lot? When do you mainly use them? For farm work?]

The volunteers who came to Deokjeokdo Island, a medically underserved area, are none other than medical staff from a local university hospital and students majoring in health and medicine, including those from medical, pharmacy, nursing, and traditional Korean medicine schools.

Students and teachers from five high schools in Incheon also participated in this meaningful volunteer work.

[Do Seong-hoon / Superintendent of Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education: This is the first time in the country that activities combining students' career exploration and medical volunteer work are being carried out.]

Deokjeokdo Island, which requires a journey of over an hour by boat from Incheon Coastal Ferry Terminal, has no private hospitals or pharmacies, only a local health center and a clinic.

[Kim Hye-kyung / Resident of Deokjeok-myeon, Ongjin-gun: Since it is an island, we cannot go out often. It is inconvenient to have to take a boat even when we know we need to, so I am very grateful that you came here like this.]

During heart ultrasound examinations, some residents were found to have moderate to severe heart abnormalities and were immediately connected to follow-up care.

For students majoring in health and medicine, it served as a practical learning ground to analyze community health issues and discuss solutions.

[Kim Ji-yu / 2nd-year student, Gachon University College of Medicine: I was surprised by the fact that there are no hospitals, only a health center, and that the residents rely solely on that.]

About 330 island residents received medical treatment throughout the day.

Twenty-eight elementary, middle, and high school students also received health checkups, including urine tests and eye exams.

[Jung Wook-jin / Dean of Gachon University College of Medicine (Professor of Cardiology): We have carried on the DNA of volunteerism for 60 years, visiting various islands including Deokjeokdo and Daeijakdo to provide medical services, and this event carries the meaning of continuing that tradition.]

(Video coverage: Lim Dong-guk | Video editing: Jung Yong-hwa | Footage courtesy of Gachon University Gil Medical Center)