More expert involvement urged at major emergencies after Itaewon disaster

Bereaved families to speak as witnesses at final public hearing of parliamentary probe

Dr. Cha Ji-ho of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology speaks at the public hearing held Tuesday at the National Assembly. (Yonhap)

Experts called for giving emergency doctors more authority and the government more responsibility at the scene of major disasters.

Speaking at the parliamentary probe hearing into the Halloween disaster in Itaewon last year, emergency medicine professor Dr. Lee Kyung-won of Yonsei University said first responders should be supported by an expert at the scene.

“Large public hospitals get aid from municipalities so they have their own disaster medical assistance team. But most hospitals can’t afford to have their own team. Instead they have contracts with private ambulance providers,” he said.

“Hospitals like this can’t send their emergency doctors to the scene right away because they have to wait for the ambulance to arrive.”

The contract ambulances were also rarely insured, and the costs were usually the hospitals’ responsibility, he added.

At large casualty incidents like what happened in Itaewon, the head of the district public health office directs the response efforts. But oftentimes the public health officials aren't emergency or disaster medicine specialists, Lee pointed out.

“There should be a disaster emergency medicine specialist at the scene, giving directions to responders,” he said.

He said at the time of the disaster in Itaewon, if emergency doctors had the authority, more patients could have been given first aid care that they needed.

“The first responders at the fire department did the best they could, but I regret that we could have had an expert there steering the response,” he said.

The disaster medical emergency team that is set to be established within the Ministry of Health and Welfare should shoulder the responsibility of the management of first response operations in a disaster setting, he added.

Dr. Cha Ji-ho, a conflict response expert at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, also speaking at the hearing, questioned why the victims were not more involved in the discussions held in the aftermath of the disaster.

“The key difference, I think, between Korea’s disaster response system and that of some other countries is that victims are not involved,” he said. “It’s bewildering to me that victims, and the families of victims aren’t invited to ask experts and lawmakers conducting the parliamentary probe questions.”

For the first time since the parliamentary probe kicked off in November, bereaved families of the victims who died in the crowd disaster will appear as witnesses in the hearing slated for Thursday.

Rep. Woo Sang-ho, the chair of the parliamentary probe committee, said that Thursday’s hearing involving the victims will be the last public hearing before a report on the findings of the probe is adopted.

“I urge lawmakers to come fully prepared for Thursday,” he said.

By Kim Arin(arin@heraldcorp.com)