Experts' advice on securing sickbeds and human resources

병상 확보의 골든타임을 놓칠라... 중환자 병상 확보 대책은?

As the number of COVID-19 patients in South Korea continues to surge, health authorities are laser focused on securing enough sickbeds and medical staff.
Our Kim Bo-kyoung has more on what experts are urging the authorities to do.
As the number of people infected with the virus surges, the number of patients in a serious condition has also increased.
Given that it takes around a week to ten days for conditions to worsen after infection, it is important to secure more sickbeds for seriously ill patients.
"If this trend continues and the number of patients increase, the country's medical treatment system would also reach its limit."
Experts advise that it is necessary to actively seek for cooperation with private hospitals instead of relying on national and public hospitals which do not have enough sickbeds.
The problem is that the government isn't announcing any compensation plans for private hospitals.
"The government has not presented any compensation plan for private hospitals in the case they are mobilized. If the government does not guarantee against their losses, who would cooperate?"
Even if the sickbeds are in place, it won't be any good unless the necessary human resources who can treat patients are ready.
Considering that it previously took around four months for the government to educate around 3-hundred-50 nurses specifically to work with seriously ill COVID-19 patients, securing human resources could be more important than securing sickbeds.
"Since all the staff wear level D anti-contamination clothing it is hard to effectively utilize human resources and also, it is hard to start the work right away without experience."
The number of people with mild symptoms is expected to rise as more people get tested in the temporary health clinics that are opening up.
At present, around 5-hundred-80 infected patients in the capital area must wait at home as they weren't assigned sickbeds.
Kim Bo-kyoung, Arirang News.