One in every two severe emergency patients has not been able to arrive in the emergency room within the golden time in the past five years, according to a lawmaker.

Rep. Choi Hye-young of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea said so Tuesday based on her analysis of data at the National Medical Center.

According to Rep. Choi, about 710,000 severe emergency patients, 49.1 percent of the total 1.45 million, could not arrive at emergency rooms within an appropriate time from 2018 to 2022.

More seriously, Choi said the share of severe emergency patients who cannot arrive at ERs was on the rise.

The share of severe emergency patients who could not arrive at ERs on time increased by about 5 percentage points from 47.2 percent in 2018 to 52.1 percent in 2022.

By disease, the emergency room un-arrival rate for almost all diseases, including myocardial infarction, hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, and severe trauma, increased over the past five years.

Notably, the ER non-arrival rate of severe trauma patients within appropriate time jumped by about 8 percentage points from 48.5 percent to 56.5 percent.

“These days, many people express concerns about the emergency care system since the accident of a teenage patient who died after failing to find the emergency room for 140 minutes after a falling accident,” Rep. Choi said. “The government said it has gone all out to keep the golden time by injecting financial support into the system, but the rate of the non-arrival rate increased.”

Noting that the Ministry of Health and Welfare said in March that it would drastically improve the emergency care system and take responsibility for final care throughout the country, Choi said, “We once again call for the government to ensure severe emergency patients arrive at ERs on time by coming up with effective alternatives.”