On December 24, Bak Jang-il (35) received a notice from A, the rehabilitation hospital where his father was hospitalized, and it said, “We have been designated as a regional COVID-19 hospital. Please vacate the hospital room by this coming December 30.” Bak’s father had been receiving rehabilitation treatment at this hospital in Gyeonggi since June 2020 after the right side of his body was paralyzed following a brain disease. After receiving the sudden notice, the family made over fifty phone calls in search of another hospital. On December 29, Bak said, “The hospital introduced us to other hospitals, but when we called, they either said that they couldn’t take on the patient or they were care hospitals that didn’t specialize in rehabilitation.”

Patients who had been receiving in-patient treatment at hospitals that the government newly designated as regional COVID-19 hospitals and their caretakers said, “We received a notice that was close to a forced eviction.” When the spread of COVID-19 accelerated again in the Seoul metropolitan area, the government rushed to increase the number of hospitals for the exclusive treatment of covid patients, and in the process, failed to properly prepare measures to relocate existing patients.

In the case of A, the rehabilitation hospital plans to use all its 200 plus hospital beds for the treatment of covid patients. The latest measure will force 47 patients to leave the hospital, leaving the patients and their guardians with an emergency situation. Bak said, “My father could not even sit, but recently, he has been practicing walking with an assistive device and was really motivated. I’m upset because he has to move to another hospital.” He further said, “I wasn’t able to attend to my work properly, and I barely managed to find another hospital. We decided to move my father to a rehabilitation care hospital in Siheung-si, but I’m worried that that hospital might be designated as a covid hospital too and tell us to leave.”

On December 27, Ju (42) also received a notice from B, a general hospital in Gyeonggi-do where his father was hospitalized, informing them to move to another hospital by December 30. Ju said, “We frantically looked for another hospital because they told us to leave in two days.” He continued and said, “Many hospitals said they were already full, so I had to take half a day off on December 27 and all day off on the 28th because I had to look for a hospital.”

On December 28, when Ju went to pick up his father, renovation was underway at B General Hospital to create more hospital rooms for COVID-19 patients. So far, the hospital has switched 63 hospital beds for the exclusive treatment of covid patients, and they plan to secure 280 additional beds by mid-January next year. Ju said, “As the guardian of a patient, I wanted to take my time to look for a good hospital, but I had a really tough time because they told a patient, who couldn’t even move, to get out in two days,” and added, “I wish the hospital would notify the patients and their guardians a little earlier.”

A representative of B General Hospital said, “The government asked us to switch to a regional COVID-19 hospital, and we made the tough decision because we wanted to do our part in overcoming this national crisis.” He further explained, “As for the existing patients, the medical staff are determining whether the patient should move to another hospital or stay and transfer to a general hospital bed and seeking the consent of the patients. Usually, patients who want to extend their stay in the hospital can, but that is hard to do at present.”

On December 27, a petition was posted on the Cheongwadae national petition website under the heading, “Help Critical Patients with Nowhere to Go Due to the Sudden Designation of COVID-19 Hospitals by the Central Disaster Management Headquarters.” The person who posted the petition wrote, “The hospital where my father is hospitalized due to a stroke contacted us on December 23 and notified us to move my father to another hospital by December 31 because they were designated as a COVID-19 hospital. We believe this is unfair, and we don’t know what to do.”

According to the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, as of December 24, fourteen hospitals have switched to regional COVID-19 hospitals with all their beds allocated for the exclusive treatment of covid patients. Most were in the greater Seoul area. A representative of the Central Disaster Management Headquarters said, “Even in normal circumstances not involving COVID-19, the government does not manage the individual patients who are transferred to other hospitals and check which hospital they move to,” and added, “The government does not urge or force the hospitals when they are late in implementing the changes. If things are delayed due to the relocation of patients, naturally, we wait.”