[Subtitle News] Doctors Referred to Prosecution 3 Years After 'ER Shopping' Case... Medical Community Outraged Over 'Collapse of Essential Care'

The doctors who refused treatment in the so-called "ER shopping" case, where a teenage girl died after being turned away from emergency rooms following a fall from a building in Daegu in 2023, have been referred to the prosecution three years later.

The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency announced that it has referred two doctors from major hospitals in the Daegu area to the prosecution without detention on charges of violating the Emergency Medical Service Act.

They are accused of refusing to perform basic triage or provide fundamental treatment to the 17-year-old victim, identified as A, who was transported after falling from a building, and instead advising that she be taken to another hospital.

At the time, after A died of cardiac arrest in an ambulance while being transferred between eight hospitals in the Daegu area, the government imposed administrative penalties, such as the suspension of subsidies, on four of the eight hospitals that refused to accept the patient.

Two of these hospitals filed administrative lawsuits against the Ministry of Health and Welfare to cancel the penalties but lost the cases.

The police stated, "We determined that there was no justifiable reason for the doctors to avoid providing emergency medical care on the grounds that it was outside their area of expertise, and we conducted the investigation based on the details of the administrative lawsuits." However, the medical community has reacted with strong opposition.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) and the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine issued separate statements, condemning the move as "an unreasonable measure that shows a complete lack of understanding of how emergency rooms operate." They added, "It is worthy of criticism to belatedly seek judicial accountability for a matter that did not involve criminal complaints against individual doctors even during the government's investigation at the time."

In particular, the KMA warned, "Including even residents who were in training at the time in the scope of judicial action will send a very negative signal to young doctors considering essential medical fields," adding that it "will accelerate the collapse of the emergency medical system."

The medical community strongly urged the prosecution to drop the charges against the two doctors, arguing that fundamental institutional improvements, such as exemption from criminal liability for unavoidable medical accidents, must take precedence over a punishment-oriented approach.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Jeong Yong-hee | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.