Long queues for beds as S. Korea's worst surge overwhelms hospitals

SEOUL • South Korea's rush to open up has led to an unprecedented spike in hospitalisations and deaths in the country, which threatens to undo the progress it has made so far in the pandemic.

South Korea reported 6,320 cases each day on average in the past week, more than three times as many cases as it did the week before Nov 1, when restrictions were eased. The seven-day average of new deaths jumped nearly fivefold to 57. Last Saturday, the country announced 80 deaths - the highest number of deaths recorded in one day.

Bed shortages have reached critical levels at hospitals across the country, with more than 80 per cent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds filled up as at last Saturday afternoon.

In all of Seoul, which is facing the worst outbreak, there are just 34 beds left for the sickest Covid-19 patients. By midnight last Saturday, 1,739 patients in and around Seoul were still waiting for beds, 1,222 of whom were categorised as clinically vulnerable.

According to official statistics, 29 patients died at home in the last five weeks without ever being admitted because no hospital had beds to accept them.

Since the start of last month, the government has issued four rounds of executive orders to hospitals to set aside more beds for severely or critically ill Covid-19 patients. With the latest such order last Friday, an additional 134 ICU beds were created.

The surge in patients, however, is outpacing the number of beds that are being made available. Since the first order on Nov 5, 442 more patients developed symptoms requiring intensive care - more than triple the number of beds that could be mobilised over the period.

At the end of a series of orders to hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Welfare admitted that hospitals were nearing maximum capacity and could not free up more beds.

As hospitals are forced to turn an increasing share of their ICU beds into Covid-19 ones, non-Covid-19 patients are being deprived of treatment, said critical care medicine specialist Suh Gee-young from Samsung Medical Centre.

Front-line healthcare workers say the surge is already straining hospitals past their limits. "Patients who should be at hospitals are at home. Patients who should be in ICUs are in non-ICU wards," said the Association of Physicians for Humanism and four other medical and welfare groups in a joint statement.

As resources become depleted, the statement said, patients who have lower chances of survival were being admitted on the condition that they agree to do-not-resuscitate orders. Patients with other medical conditions were asked to sign a form saying they understood the possibility they might not be able to continue treatment or receive surgery while in isolation for Covid-19.

The statement said that while the government had two years to augment hospital capacity in anticipation of a surge, efforts have fallen short. "As the country lifts restrictions, there should have been measures to respond to a possible, foreseeable surge in hospitalisations."

A junior doctors' association said in an emergency press conference last week that the recent scrambles at hospitals showed that the government has failed to anticipate the worst.

The association said that at hospital emergency rooms, Covid-19 patients were waiting for up to 300 hours for an isolation bed. Most of the patients coming into the emergency room now were home-care patients experiencing worsening symptoms, it added.

THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK