In late February, when the number of new Covid-19 cases spiked after the cluster infections at a new Christian sect’s church, the medical system in Daegu and surrounding North Gyeongsang Province has all but collapsed.
Saving it from the crisis was Kyeimyung University Daegu Dongsan Hospital.
About 63 percent of all domestic Covid-19 cases occurred in Daegu. When the viral infections were at their peak, more than 500 people tested positive in the nation’s fourth-largest city per day. Hospitals there could not handle the surging number of Covid-19 patients with existing hospital beds alone.
Kyeimyung University Dongsan Medical Center emptied its branch hospital, Daegu Dongsan Hospital, for Covid-19 patients. Daegu Dongsan Hospital is a general hospital, located where Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital used to be. Patients who had been hospitalized at Daegu Dongsan Hospital were transferred to a new building of Kyeimyung University Dongsan Hospital in Dalseo-gu, Daegu.
Daegu Dongsan Hospital opened in April last year as a secondary medical institution with 200 hospital beds. After a rapid increase in Covid-19 patients, the hospital increased the number of beds to 460 based on its experience of operating up to 1,000 beds when it was the former Kyeimyung University Dongsan Hospital.
To cope with Covid-19, the hospital also ran a collaboration system with the new Kyeimyung University Dongsan Hospital, a tertiary one.
Kyeimyung University Dongsan Hospital sent a large number of healthcare professionals to Daegu Dongsan Hospital and temporarily reduced staff for outpatient care by over 50 percent.
With the Covid-19 crisis, Daegu Dongsan Hospital played a role of a field hospital with the support of Kyeimyung University Dongsan Hospital. However, the two hospitals are suffering financial losses to a degree where wages are delayed.
Cho Chi-heum, director of Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital and head of the Covid-19 emergency response headquarters of state-designated regional hospitals, shared the hospital’s situation when Covid-19 patients were jumping in Daegu in late February.
He spoke at the YouTube live show, “Corona Fighters Live” Friday on K-Healthlog, a channel by The Korean Doctors’ Weekly.
“When Covid-19 infections were spreading from members of Shincheonji Church, we expected about 2,500 cases in Daegu alone. In reality, however, there were more,” Cho said.
He recalled that he attended a meeting with Daegu City officials every day.
Receiving patients at Dongsan Hospital’s 40 beds in the negative pressure room was just not enough.
Fortunately, the hospital still had the system of 1,000-bed Daegu Dongsan Hospital that he used to run one year earlier, he said. “I thought our hospital had a social duty (to serve confirmed patients). I suggested that Daegu Dongsan Hospital would take care of patients with mild symptoms, and other university hospitals, severe patients,” Cho said.
Daegu Dongsan Hospital and Dongsan Hospital have treated over 1,000 Covid-19 patients so far, about 10 percent of the entire Covid-19 patients in Korea. Now, Daegu Dongsan Hospital is treating 140 hospitalized Covid-19 patients.
To treat Covid-19 patients, Dongsan Hospital dispatched about 70 nurses and doctors with over 20 years of experience to Daegu Dongsan Hospital and shut down half of the tertiary care service, Cho went on to say. “We put 1,500 workers to Daegu Dongsan Hospital and made them take a two-week work shift. Such a system was possible because Dongsan Hospital could support it,” he said.
Cho said the fight against Covid-19 gave Daegu Dongsan Hospital and Dongsan Hospital a 3.8 billion won ($3.1 million) loss.
“I reported the loss to the government to seek compensation, but I don’t know we’ll get it,” he said.
So far, the two hospitals have been able to pay wages to employees. However, Daegu Dongsan Hospital might not be able to do so for May and June wages, Cho noted. “I hope we can get the compensation as soon as possible,” he said.
Cho called on the authorities to re-establish the role of private hospitals and state-run ones in dealing with infectious diseases, in light of the Covid-19 crisis. Dongsan Hospital and Daegu Donsang Hospital are private institutions.
The nation needs a hospital that specializes in infectious diseases. Still, even if it does, the hospital would not be able to accommodate too many hospital beds, he went on to say.
“We have to set rules for normal days, and urgent days, in advance,” he said, noting that state-run hospitals should be able to empty themselves in emergencies if they are to serve the public health.
“Private hospitals need such kind of system in normal days, and this is not something just one hospital could do. This was possible because we had two hospitals,” he added.