Lee Hyung-min, president of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine (KSME), has directly attacked the government while citing the risk of “annihilating” emergency medicine and “killing” ER departments.

Lee said that the government only passes the buck to medical workers for patients’ “ER rushing” while ignoring the fact that hospitals cannot provide follow-up care.

The KSME head made the remarks on Tuesday during his speech at the “National Assembly Debate on Problems and Improvements to the Emergency Medical System” held on Tuesday.

Lee said the government is concerned about the emergency medicine crisis and discusses solutions, but most of them are “wrong from the very beginning.”

“The Ministry of Health and Welfare blames ERs not accepting patients, and President Yoon Suk Yeol even went further to say there is a shortage of emergency medicine specialists, but all this is based on enormous bias and misunderstanding,” Lee said. “The government says that ERs reject patients, but what matters is the infrastructure or lack thereof in the final treatment.”

Lee also pointed to the seriousness of the rush of mild cases to ERs at large hospitals.

“The abnormal ER using practices and excessive demand for ERs by mildly ill patients must be controlled. If we don't address the root causes, we will never get it right,” he said, emphasizing the need for realistic, workable alternatives and motivation for participation and cooperation.

However, according to the KSME head, governments only talk about the “ER rush” without trying to solve it.

“There is neither a policy goal of reducing the number of “ER hoppers” in 10 years nor an announcement of spending trillions of won to solve the problem,” he said. “The government just pressurizes hospitals and doctors.”

Lee pointed out that the government has spent 4.4 trillion won ($31.3 billion) so far to solve the “healthcare crisis.”

“If the government had given just 1 trillion won (to the emergency medical field), it might have resolved 90 percent of the ER rushes in Seoul,” Lee said. “I don't have the slightest idea of what the government is doing while spending taxpayers’ money on stupid policies.”

Lee stressed that it shouldn't be a battle (between doctors and paramedics) when the government doesn't show any behavioral change, adding that it’s a “frame” and a malicious insistence to pass the responsibility to the emergency when hospitals cannot provide follow-up care.

Lee explained that the reality is that even if ER specialists want to step in, they face heavy legal liability. The issue of final treatment and patient acceptance also “falls back on the responsibility of the ER staff, he said, asking what country makes it a law to accept patients and emphasizing that it should be a medical judgment, but the government tries to make it a legal decision.”

Lee described the situation as “devastating,” noting that emergency physicians have lost most of their will and nearly 20 percent have left the scene.

“It's “annihilation. Pediatrics has declared itself a 'dead department,' and the emergency medicine department is no different,” Lee said.

“I don't think there will be any recruits next year, and (emergency medicine) is entering the territory of closure,” Lee warned.