Korea's unique emergency centre for drunkards

According to Korea Bio Med (https://www.koreabiomed.com), local goverments in South Korea have opened emergency medical centres in hospitals to cater to drunkards in response to the increasing number of drunkards in Gyeongsang Province. These centres provide dedicated beds for intoxicated individuals until they become sober.

Gyeongsang Province has recently opened an emergency medical centre for drunk people within the Pohang Medical Centre. The facility features a dedicated area with beds where intoxicated individuals can be kept until they become sober. Furthermore, the Automomous Police Committe will deploy four officers 24/7 to ensure the safety of the patients.

 

Accoriding to the National Police Agency in Gyeongsang Province, they received 17,318 reports of drunkards between Januaray and July 2022. This number is an increase of about 1,600 from the same period in 2021.

 

To address this issue, the local government opened the emergency medical centre for durnkards, hoping to provent a 'piblic security gap' and provide professional medical support to patients.

If the performance of the emergency medical centre provides to be satisfactory, it might be expanded across Gyeong-sang Province. Emergency care centres for drunkards are also available in other regions such as Seosan Medical Centre in ChungCheong Province, Hanyang University Guri Hospital in Gyeonggi Province, and Central Hospital in Ulsan, managed by the National Police Agency. These centres also offer police protection until the patients are sober.

 

Despite the efforts of local governments, emergency care physicians criticise the policy, saying it is nothing more than window dressing. An emergency medicine doctor pointed out that Korea is the only country that forces ERs to take care of drunkards. Hospintals are forced to prioritise drunkards instead of the critically ill.

 

Lee Hyung-min, president of Korean Emergecy Medical Association, who works at the Hallym Univeristy Sacred Heart Hopspital, criticised the project, stating that existing emergency medical centres for drunkards have received poor evaluations, and the project is meaningless.