A 104-year-old woman, surnamed Choi, is discharged from Pohang Medical Center in Pohang, 374 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on May 15, 2020, after fully recovering from coronavirus infection. She was the oldest patient in the country. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government has teamed up with twelve high-level general hospitals to launch customized care services including cleaning and food delivery for discharged patients with mobility difficulties, among others, elderly and disabled people.
The city government announced on Wednesday that it will launch the “SOS Center Connect Service for Care of Discharged Patients’” in all of the city’s 25 districts starting from August 1.
Under this service, caregivers will visit the homes of the discharged patients to provide customized care services as well as to accompany them on essential errands.
Caregivers will also perform simple repair, maintenance, cleaning and disinfection work at the homes of the discharged patients, while offering food delivery services to help them meet their basic needs.
For those whose income is less than 100 percent of the standard median income, the city government will fully support the expense. In other cases, users have to cover the cost by themselves.
The city government said that it decided to introduce the service to remove a welfare blind spot, based on considerations that those over 50 years of age account for one-third of the discharged patients, and the number of households that need care service after discharge is increasing at a rapid pace.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
