SEOUL: South Korea needs to train for potential infectious disease outbreaks worse than COVID-19 and detailed treatment guidelines, as risks of more frequent such outbreaks rise and public sickbeds remain tight, a senior government official said.
But its extremely low rate of public hospital beds - only 10 per cent of total - remains a potential weak spot, as the country continues to battle small but persistent outbreaks and front-line public healthcare workers suffer burnout after more than six months of treating COVID-19 patients. "We need to be prepared by running simulation exercises on various scenarios: how to switch the existing hospitals, where to send the medical staff, or how to categorize the patients."South Korea had the second-highest number of hospital beds, next to Japan, in 2017 with 12.3 beds per 1,000 population, double the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's average of 4.7, according to an OECD report.
"South Korea’s efforts have been called a success, despite a lack of public medical facilities. This evaluation proves the private hospitals and doctors are second to none," he told Reuters.
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Source: The Straits Times - 🏆 8. / 63 Read more »