An amendment to the Emergency Medical Service Act, designed to prevent the so-called "emergency room-hopping" phenomenon by enabling the designation of destination hospitals for critically ill emergency patients, has rapidly passed through the Health and Welfare Committee and subsequently the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly, leaving only the plenary session vote.

During a full meeting on the 28th, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly reviewed and deliberated on 56 bills, including the "Partial Amendment to the Emergency Medical Service Act."

The amendment stipulates that if the Central Emergency Medical Center and the 119 Emergency Medical Situation Center fail to swiftly determine an appropriate emergency medical institution for transporting a critically ill patient, they may designate a severe emergency medical center or an emergency medical institution prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare as a receiving facility in accordance with regional transport systems.

On this day, Chief Specialist Yoon Sang-yeol of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee conveyed the medical community's concerns in his bill review report. According to Yoon, the Korean Medical Association requested that the current regulations be maintained, arguing that deleting the existing rule requiring the verification of an emergency medical institution's reception capacity prior to transport could cause confusion in the field. They also argued that splitting the designation authority between the Central Emergency Medical Center and the 119 Emergency Medical Situation Center could obscure the line of responsibility, and thus authority should be unified under the Central Emergency Medical Center.

Previously, the Health and Welfare Committee also adopted a supplementary opinion suggesting the removal of the 119 Emergency Medical Situation Center from the designation authorities, taking into consideration potential confusion within the emergency medical system.

People Power Party lawmaker Kwak Kyu-taek emphasized concerns over field confusion and pointed out that sufficient supplementary measures are needed before implementation. Kwak stated, "While the objective of reducing emergency room-hopping is important, a bill becomes truly effective only when the voices from the actual field are heard and experts' opinions are sufficiently reflected. As subordinate details have not yet been arranged amid the Health and Welfare Committee's supplementary opinions, detailed criteria must be meticulously prepared and experts' opinions sufficiently gathered before enforcing the law."

The government's stance is to reflect the medical community's opinions while preparing subordinate statutes and detailed operational standards prior to implementation.

Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Jung-kyun stated, "The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine provided an opinion agreeing with the fundamental direction of the law amendment. However, as there were requests to more closely reflect field opinions when preparing detailed implementation plans such as subordinate statutes or guidelines, discussions are currently underway."

Regarding the reception capacity verification rule raised as an issue by the medical community, she explained, "There is a misunderstanding that the procedure for checking reception capacity in advance has disappeared, which is different from the facts. Some provisions have been modified so that the content is included in regional transport guidelines and implemented accordingly."

Minister Cho also emphasized that the feasibility of applying the amendment in the field has already been verified through a pilot project. The amendment originated from the "Innovation Pilot Project for Emergency Medical Transport Systems" implemented in the Gwangju and Jeonnam regions from March to May. The core objective is to analyze regional emergency medical resources and demand by city and province, create transport guidelines tailored to regional characteristics, and establish a transport system that 119 ambulances, emergency situation centers, and emergency medical institutions can execute together.

Cho stated, "The pilot project results received evaluations that limited medical resources can be used efficiently. Regional transport guidelines will include priority acceptance hospitals and patient acceptance availability, and we plan to update them annually to reflect changes in medical resources." She added, "We will cooperate with the medical community while creating subordinate statutes and preparing for implementation."

The criminal liability reduction regulations for medical personnel who accommodated critically ill emergency patients also became a point of contention during the Judiciary Committee meeting.

Lawmaker Park Eun-jung of the Rebuilding Korea Party pointed out that the criteria could be ambiguous regarding the amendment's provision to reduce criminal liability "in the absence of gross negligence." Park stated, "If the criteria for gross negligence are ambiguous, there may be concerns that when a problem arises after a hospital accepts a patient, it could be judged as gross negligence. Detailed criteria for gross negligence must be meticulously regulated to ensure effectiveness."

In response, Minister Cho explained that as a special criminal provision for emergency diseases has been established through the amendment of the Medical Dispute Adjustment Act, criteria are being materialized in subordinate statutes. She stated, "While preparing the subordinate statutes of the Medical Dispute Adjustment Act, we are creating specific detailed criteria on what gross negligence is, particularly concerning high-risk essential medical practices. Detailed criteria are scheduled to be presented through that law."

[Copyright (c) Global Economic Times. All Rights Reserved.]