Overcrowded Hospital

[Anchor Lead]

KBS TV has learned that the hospital in Miryang where dozens of people died in a fire and scores more were injured was operating an intensive care unit with twice as many patients than it was approved for. Nine people were found dead on the third floor of Sejong Hospital, where the ICU was located.

[Pkg]

The intensive care unit on Sejong Hospital's third floor was where nine people died in a fire. It measured around 100 square meters. When the hospital obtained a permit for the facility, the minimum area per patient in all intensive care units was required to be 10 square meters. Sejong Hospital's ICU was allowed to have ten patients, but it has been discovered that the hospital gradually added more and more patients until the number doubled the permissible level and reached 20. The hospital operated its ICU in line with the standards for regular wards. However, the Miryang Public Health Center says that Sejong Hospital has no ICU.

[Soundbite] (Official from Miryang Public Health Center (Voice modified)) : "They don't have an ICU. They don't meet the requirements of the Medical Service Act. There is no ICU there."

Patients' rooms on the second floor, where the most victims were found, were also overcrowded. The hospital remodeled its operating and physical therapy rooms into patient wards, which accommodated 39 people. That's 14 patients more than permitted by the stricter regulations. The hospital also had nine wards for more than five patients each, which is not allowed by the current regulations.

[Soundbite] Yang Jung-kan(Patient) : "(Where's room 207?) It's here(where a physical therapy room used to be). There is an ER underneath. That's where the fire started. It's the second floor, but it doesn't seem to match the design plan."

This is the reason the hospital is increasingly being blamed for having overcrowded patient wards, which led to a high death toll in the blaze. Although the hospital changed the location and size of its emergency rooms and patient wards frequently, the authorities had to deal with the fire in line with its old design plan. The hospital is now unable to avoid criticism for operating overcrowded patient wards and changing the purpose of use of its facilities at its own discretion.