Assemblyman Seo Youngseok Sponsors 'Emergency Medical Service Act' Amendment to Prevent Uninsured Ambulances from Operating

Hospital Staffing Standards to Reflect Patient Acuity and Occupational Characteristics

Assemblyman Seo Young-seok (Democratic Party of Korea, Bucheon-si Gap, Gyeonggi Province) said on Nov. 13 that he had separately sponsored bills to amend the Medical Service Act and the Emergency Medical Service Act to establish appropriate staffing standards for hospital-level medical institutions and strengthen oversight of ambulance insurance coverage.

Ambulances. Unrelated to the article. Reporter Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@

The proposed amendment to the Medical Service Act would require the Minister of Health and Welfare to establish appropriate staffing standards for hospital-level medical institutions. The current law sets only minimum staffing levels for each type of medical institution, prompting concerns that it cannot adequately account for factors such as patient acuity, the duties associated with each occupation, and regional workforce supply and demand.

The bill would require the standards to reflect patient characteristics, disease severity, the type of medical institution, duties and work arrangements for each occupation, and regional workforce supply and demand. Medical institutions subject to the standards would be required to disclose their staffing levels, while institutions that comply could receive administrative and financial support. Institutions that fail to comply with staffing standards and do not follow corrective orders would be required to publicly disclose the results.

The proposed amendment to the Emergency Medical Service Act would enshrine in law the requirement for ambulance operators to carry both liability insurance and comprehensive insurance, and allow their insurance coverage to be checked at all times. The measure aims to prevent cases in which some ambulance operators take out insurance only for regular inspections and then cancel it afterward.

The bill would allow the Minister of Health and Welfare and local government heads to request coverage information from insurance companies and others, and to establish and operate related information systems. Violations of the insurance requirement could also result in the cancellation of a permit, closure, or suspension of business for up to six months.

The deadline for applying the expanded patient-compartment standards to public ambulances would be postponed by three years, from April 2, 2027, to April 2, 2030. The delay is intended to allow time to develop replacement vehicles and verify their safety after production and sales of vehicles meeting the requirement for at least 70 centimeters of space between the driver's partition and the stretcher were discontinued.

“Appropriate medical staffing is essential to improving patient safety and the quality of medical services,” Assemblyman Seo said. “We also need to strengthen oversight of ambulances so we can verify that their insurance remains in force while they are actually operating.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.