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Source: http://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=7508
Hospice patients have nowhere to go amid spread of COVID-19
By Kim Eun-young
Published 2020.02.25 11:40
Updated 2020.02.25 11:40
After the government designated state-run medical institutions as hospitals exclusively responsible for treating COVID-19 patients, terminally ill patients at their hospice centers received an abrupt notice to find another place to stay.
However, other hospitals for palliative care said they were already full, leaving hospice patients at a loss.
The government ordered the state-designated hospitals to empty hospice wards by Friday this week to admit COVID-19 patients. However, the sudden move baffled the hospitals because hospice wards at other medical institutions nearby do not have vacant beds for terminally ill patients.
Sources in the medical community said the Seoul Metropolitan Government planned to send COVID-19 patients to Seoul Medical Center and Seonam Hospital to isolate them. Gyeonggi Province will use Paju Hospital as the institution exclusively treating COVID-19 patients. Accordingly, the three hospitals should move hospice patients to nearby institutions.
However, seven out of 16 terminally ill patients at the hospice ward of Paju Hospital could not find any other medical institution to go as of 7 a.m. on Monday.
The capital city asked Seoul Medical Center to move hospice patients to Seoul Metropolitan Dongbu Hospital. Still, it was impossible to transfer the entire patients due to the shortage of hospice beds...
Hospice patients have nowhere to go amid spread of COVID-19
By Kim Eun-young
Published 2020.02.25 11:40
Updated 2020.02.25 11:40
After the government designated state-run medical institutions as hospitals exclusively responsible for treating COVID-19 patients, terminally ill patients at their hospice centers received an abrupt notice to find another place to stay.
However, other hospitals for palliative care said they were already full, leaving hospice patients at a loss.
The government ordered the state-designated hospitals to empty hospice wards by Friday this week to admit COVID-19 patients. However, the sudden move baffled the hospitals because hospice wards at other medical institutions nearby do not have vacant beds for terminally ill patients.
Sources in the medical community said the Seoul Metropolitan Government planned to send COVID-19 patients to Seoul Medical Center and Seonam Hospital to isolate them. Gyeonggi Province will use Paju Hospital as the institution exclusively treating COVID-19 patients. Accordingly, the three hospitals should move hospice patients to nearby institutions.
However, seven out of 16 terminally ill patients at the hospice ward of Paju Hospital could not find any other medical institution to go as of 7 a.m. on Monday.
The capital city asked Seoul Medical Center to move hospice patients to Seoul Metropolitan Dongbu Hospital. Still, it was impossible to transfer the entire patients due to the shortage of hospice beds...