The only educational institution in Korea that trains trauma surgeons like Baek Kang-hyuk, the protagonist of the Netflix drama, “The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call,” has narrowly avoided closure.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government recently decided to support the Severe Trauma Surgeon Training Center at Korea University Guro Hospital, which has suspended operations due to the central government’s budget cut.

On Thursday, Mayor Oh Se-hoon said on his Facebook page that the City Hall will invest 500 million won ($345,540) in disaster management funds in the training center in southwestern Seoul to help train doctors specialized in treating severe trauma patients. Oh added that he would designate similar training hospitals and increase support for them.

Two trauma surgeon trainees who had to suspend their training will also continue their training without interruption from March.

“Life-saving severe trauma centers portrayed in the drama are always the first to face budget cuts because they are the least profitable. Unfortunately, this drama shows the reality of our medical care,” the mayor said. “The training center at Korea University Guro Hospital, responsible for training severe trauma specialists, was in danger of closing. That was because the entire budget of 900 million won was cut during the National Assembly budget review process.”

“The center, which has produced 20 life guardians for 11 years, is an essential institution that also treated 571 severe trauma patients in 2023. If it disappears, the gap in the emergency medical field will become even larger,” Mayor Oh said. “I instructed the related department to consider ways to prevent this crisis and decided to maintain the training function by investing 500 million won from the Seoul City Disaster Management Fund.”

The Severe Trauma Surgeon Training Center at Korea University Guro Hospital was designated as the first training center in Korea in 2014 when the Ministry of Health and Welfare launched a project to train trauma surgeons in Seoul. The center has trained more than 20 trauma surgeons since its establishment.

However, when the budget support stopped, the hospital decided to close the training center. The government has provided 900 million won annually to the center for training and education. However, the budget was cut by over 500 million won last year due to poor financial performance.

The ministry had budgeted to support the training center for severe trauma specialists this year, but it was cut during deliberations at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee revived the budget considering the importance of training traumatology experts, but the budget was cut entirely at the end of the year as the increase was ultimately excluded.

“The project to train traumatology specialists was not reflected separately in the government budget, so the budget increase was voted on during the Assembly Health and Welfare Committee's discussion, but it was not reflected in the final draft,” the ministry said in a press release. “We will take various measures to ensure that the project to train severe trauma specialists operates smoothly starting in March.”