SEOUL, March 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the time taken to transport patients to the hospital following emergency calls has increased significantly.
The National Fire Agency reported that its emergency rescue squad transported patients in 1.99 million cases last year, an increase of 7.3 percent from 2019.
The duration of “emergency activities,” which encompasses the whole process of receiving, processing emergency calls and returning to the station also increased by 19 minutes, to an average of 69 minutes.
When the number of patient transfers was at its peak in March 2022 due to the spread of the omicron variant, the time length of “emergency activities” stretched to 80 minutes.
The delay is largely attributed to rescue team members taking extra time to put on personal protective equipment, and covering longer distances to process peaking emergency calls.
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