Group Infection Bucheon Nursing Hospital▶ Click here for a larger view
While the momentum of the’third pandemic’ of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) is seldom declining, deaths from group infections are continuing in nursing facilities nationwide with many high-risk confirmed cases.
Many of these are elderly elderly people with underlying diseases, and they die in quarantine in nursing hospitals without being assigned a dedicated bed, and the quarantine authorities are in an urgent situation.
According to the Central Defense Countermeasure Headquarters on the 29th and each city/province, 57 people died after the corona19 was confirmed in nursing hospitals or nursing facilities after January this year, as of the 28th.
In particular, the situation at Hyoplus Nursing Hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, where more than 160 confirmed patients, including medical staff and residents, were serious is serious.
On the 13th of this month, the cumulative death toll increased to 38 after the first death in this nursing hospital.
The situation at other nursing hospitals and nursing homes nationwide is not very different.
In Ulsan Yangjiyoyang Hospital, 24 out of 167 residents who were confirmed confirmed died, and 7 out of 67 confirmed residents at the True Love Elderly Nursing Home in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do.
Related confirmed cases from these nursing facilities are also rising like a snowball.
As of the last 27 days ▲ Guro-gu nursing home in Seoul-nursing home cumulative 136 people ▲ Hyoplus nursing hospital in Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do 164 people ▲ Canaan nursing home in Gimje-si, Jeonbuk, 91 people ▲ True love elderly nursing home in Cheongju-si, Chungbuk 105 people ▲ Large-scale group infection, including 243 nursing hospitals in Nam-gu, Ulsan It is occurring all over the country.
Kang Young-seok, head of the Jeonbuk-do health care department, said, “Many patients are hospitalized in nursing hospitals, so the density is high.”
Cheongju Elderly Nursing Home with confirmed cases▶ Click here for a larger view
The problem is that the number of severely ill patients has become scarce due to the overlapping of a nursing home-initiated group infection and a nationwide tertiary pandemic, and the number of deaths continues due to not receiving timely treatment.
Of the 38 deaths of the Bucheon Hyoplus Nursing Hospital, 27 died while waiting for a dedicated bed assignment.
In this nursing hospital, 31 people, including 21 confirmed residents and 10 medical staff, are waiting for a dedicated bed assignment, but there is no room for severely ill patients in the metropolitan area, so the possibility of continued deaths cannot be ruled out.
From the 6th of this month, even at the Ulsan Yangjiyoyang Hospital, where a cohort (same group) was quarantined, 5 of the 24 dead died without being assigned a dedicated bed.
This nursing hospital was also unable to immediately transfer confirmed patients who tested positive among hospitalized patients at the beginning of the group infection to another hospital. This is because the Ulsan University Hospital, the only base hospital in the Ulsan region, also did not have enough beds.
Even if they tried to move to a medical facility in another nearby area, the majority of the confirmed patients were elderly, had underlying diseases, and were’conspiracy patients’ who lived in bed, so they couldn’t travel long distances.
While managing the confirmed and non-diagnosed patients together, if there is an extra bed due to a discharge from the Ulsan University Hospital, the situation is to transfer from the seriously confirmed patients.
The quarantine authorities also pushed forward a plan to move non-confirmed people to external private hospitals instead of confirmed patients who were difficult to secure beds, but it finally failed.
Finally, the Korean Medical Association urged the government to lift the cohort quarantine and promptly transfer the patients to a dedicated bed, saying that the quarantine of the nursing hospital cohort is worsening the patient’s condition.
The medical association held a press conference at Bucheon Hyoplus Nursing Hospital on that day and emphasized that “cohort quarantine is ultimately due to the shortage of beds, so the government must do all in its power to secure corona19-only hospitals and beds so that patients can be transferred quickly.” .
As such cases of elderly patients dying because they were not assigned a bed in a timely manner, public opinion is growing, urging to prepare special measures.
On the 28th, the Blue House National Petition bulletin board said, “Please rescue patients in nursing hospitals who are quarantined and dying like a Japanese cruise ship” on the 28th, and as of the 29th, more than 10,000 netizens agreed.
The author, who said that he is a medical staff working at a nursing hospital in Seoul, where the cohort is currently being quarantined, said, “If the existing nursing personnel are also’burned out’ and soon leave, no one will be able to take care of the patient.” “He appealed.
“Patients and caregivers lying in bed with confirmed and untreated are trembling with anxiety,” he said. “Unless human resources are supported, the number of deaths will increase further because they cannot be properly treated.”
He also appealed that the situation cannot be solved by the capabilities of local health authorities, and that the government-level dedicated department to manage nursing hospitals and nursing homes should be created to mobilize all administrative power.
Jeong Jae-hoon (37), a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Gachon University School of Medicine, said, “If the number of confirmed cases is reduced nationwide, and enough dedicated beds are secured, the number of patients dying in nursing hospitals while waiting for beds can be reduced.” “It should be administered from the high-risk confirmed person.”
(Reporter Heo Kwang-moo, Yoon Woo-yong, Kim Dong-cheol, Son Hyun-gyu)
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