<Anchor>



It is a miracle of sending babies born with a low weight of only 500 grams out of the hospital in good health. It is done in the neonatal intensive care unit.

However, the reality is that even university hospitals are gradually reducing the number of hospitals, saying there is no future.



Cho Dong-chan, a medical professional reporter, pointed out the cause and countermeasures.



<Reporter>



Twin sisters Ia and Yiwu came out to the world at the 24th week of pregnancy with an ultra-low weight of 500 grams.



My younger brother Lee Woo was discharged first, and my older sister Yi Yi also passed the crisis.



[Choi Yong-seong / Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Kyunghee University Hospital: The baby who used to be 500 grams now weighs 2.4 kg and is now preparing for discharge.]



The driving force of the miracle is the neonatal intensive care unit.



There were also moments of fear for the twin parents as they wandered around the neonatal intensive care unit.



[Kim Min-jung / Mother of twins: It was a little difficult to move from one hospital to another.

I don't know why it was moved, and I cried a lot at that time.] There



are about 1,700 neonatal intensive care units in Korea.



Even though the number of hospitals in Seoul has been reduced since 2013, the number of hospitals has become a reality and has avoided the deficit.



[Choi Yong-seong / Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Kyunghee University Hospital: Unfortunately, because there are not many manpower now, it was 18 beds for nearly 40 years, but recently it has been reduced to 12 beds.] The application



rate for the Department of Pediatrics has also dropped from 74% in 3 years to 74%. It fell sharply to 27%.



This is because they think that there is no future in the age of low birthrate due to the nature of pediatric hospitals, where hospitals are operated only by seeing a large number of patients due to the low number.



This is the pediatric ward of Gangnam Severance Hospital, Seoul.



There is only one doctor in the emergency room for children and adolescents.



[Kim Ji-hong/Professor of Department of Pediatrics at Gangnam Severance Hospital: Although there are some specialists, all other professors take turns (emergency room) on the night watch.]



37 out of 96 general hospitals nationwide that operate an emergency room for children and adolescents 24 hours a day There is only one place.



17% of our people are children and adolescents.



The society says that the neonatal intensive care unit and pediatric emergency room can be restored only when the entire pediatric department is converted to essential medical care.