병상 확보의 골든타임을 놓칠라... 중환자 병상 확보 대책은?<br /><br />As the number of COVID-19 patients in South Korea continues to surge, health authorities are laser focused on securing enough sickbeds and medical staff.<br />Our Kim Bo-kyoung has more on what experts are urging the authorities to do.<br />As the number of people infected with the virus surges, the number of patients in a serious condition has also increased.<br />Given that it takes around a week to ten days for conditions to worsen after infection, it is important to secure more sickbeds for seriously ill patients.<br />"If this trend continues and the number of patients increase, the country's medical treatment system would also reach its limit."<br />Experts advise that it is necessary to actively seek for cooperation with private hospitals instead of relying on national and public hospitals which do not have enough sickbeds.<br />The problem is that the government isn't announcing any compensation plans for private hospitals.<br />"The government has not presented any compensation plan for private hospitals in the case they are mobilized. If the government does not guarantee against their losses, who would cooperate?"<br />Even if the sickbeds are in place, it won't be any good unless the necessary human resources who can treat patients are ready.<br />Considering that it previously took around four months for the government to educate around 3-hundred-50 nurses specifically to work with seriously ill COVID-19 patients, securing human resources could be more important than securing sickbeds.<br />"Since all the staff wear level D anti-contamination clothing it is hard to effectively utilize human resources and also, it is hard to start the work right away without experience."<br />The number of people with mild symptoms is expected to rise as more people get tested in the temporary health clinics that are opening up.<br />At present, around 5-hundred-80 infected patients in the capital area must wait at home as they weren't assigned sickbeds.<br />Kim Bo-kyoung, Arirang News.<br /><br />
