(Health Korea News / Yu Ji-in) As the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is showing signs of resurgence, criticism is rising over the government’s lack of clear guidelines and support to respond to the additional spread of the infectious disease and the resulting chain of crises. Recently, with frontline hospitals and pharmacies even experiencing shortages of COVID-19 treatments, some are pointing out that the budgets and policies that were promoted to ensure the safety of the people during COVID-19 are being operated complacently after the endemic outbreak.
In relation to this, Democratic Party of Korea member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee Seo Mi-hwa said on the 11th, “The Yoon Seok-yeol government’s complacency after the endemic is not only due to the failure to secure treatments and budget cuts, but also to the problem of blood supply, which has been difficult due to the prolonged COVID-19 and the spread of Omicron.” She added, “There is great concern that the National Blood Donation Promotion Council, which was established at the time to stabilize blood supply, now remains ineffective.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, blood holding caution warnings were issued 13 times. In order to stabilize blood supply, the government began operating the National Blood Donation Promotion Council under the Minister of Health and Welfare in 2021 in accordance with the revision of the Blood Management Act.
The National Blood Donation Promotion Council holds a meeting once a year to discuss measures to stabilize blood supply in the long-term COVID-19 situation and to seek government-wide measures to treat blood donors. The members include the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
Looking at the minutes of the National Blood Donation Promotion Council submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to Rep. Seo Mi-hwa, the council launched in 2021 had 6 out of 10 attendees attend by proxy from the first meeting, and 2022 and 2023 were replaced by written meetings. The blood donation promotion councils by city and province, organized according to the ‘Mid- to Long-Term Development Plan for Blood Services’ conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2018, were also poorly managed. As of 2023, blood donation promotion councils by metropolitan cities and provinces were organized in all but two regions (Gyeonggi and Daegu), but the meeting holding rate of each council was less than 50%.
According to the ‘Current Status of Blood Supply Crisis Stage-by-Stage Days’ submitted by the Korean Red Cross, in Daegu, where the Blood Donation Promotion Council was not formed at the time in 2021, the number of days in the caution/alert stage among the blood supply crisis stages reached 75 days, and in Gyeonggi-do, it reached 212 days. In the case of the two regions, the number of days in the blood supply crisis stage during the pandemic was significantly higher than in other regions, but the Blood Donation Promotion Council has not been formed to this day.
The poor operation of the system also provides a glimpse into the government’s complacency in managing blood supply. As a result of examining the operation of the blood donation reservation call center (July 2016) and the pickup service (August 2019) introduced as part of the ‘Mid- to Long-term Development Plan for the Blood Service,’ the utilization of both systems has decreased sharply.
The number of calls to the blood donation reservation call center decreased by about 72% from 97,561 in 2020 to 27,117 in 2023, and the number of people using the pick-up service decreased by about 98% from 5,505 in 2019 to 116 in 2023. When we inquired with the Korean National Red Cross about the decrease in the number of people using the pick-up service, we found that the majority of the pick-up services were civil defense organizations, but the number of people using the service decreased sharply due to the disappearance of civil defense group training following COVID-19.
It was confirmed that since 2020, due to insufficient infrastructure at each blood center, the government’s common project has been converted to a regional specialized project at each blood center, and the service has been implemented autonomously at the blood center’s discretion. Accordingly, as of 2020, the pick-up service operated at 13 out of 15 blood centers nationwide has been reduced to 5 blood centers (Southern Seoul, Ulsan, Jeonbuk, Gwangju).
Rep. Seo Mi-hwa criticized, “The problem of blood supply and demand imbalance is a serious phenomenon that not only occurs in the event of an infectious disease crisis, but also leads to an imbalance between blood donors and recipients due to the low birth rate and aging population, but the government is only focused on preparing for-show measures and is not even properly maintaining the existing systems.” She continued, “Since the transition to an endemic situation does not mean the end of the infectious disease situation, the government must improve its response system to relieve public anxiety and minimize health damage, while also making every effort to establish a crisis management response system to prepare for a new pandemic.”
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