영국일차의료학회지에 실린 살림 주치의의 활동

영국왕립일차의료대학의 Amy Boreham 교수가살림의원 추혜인 원장의 인터뷰를 바탕으로 쓴 논문을영국일차의료학회지에 싣게 되었습니다.전세계 가정의학과 의사들이 COVID-19 대응을 위해어떤 일을 했는지 알려주는 논문이고,한국의 상황에 대해서는 살림의원이 인터뷰하였습니다. Amy BorehamPress Officer | PR and Corporate CommunicationsRoyal College of General Practitioners South Korea South Korea’s pandemic response has, so far, prevented a national lockdown and significantly minimised the spread of COVID-19 across the country, with fewer than 400 deaths recorded. Its quick response and high capacity testing system has received worldwide recognition, being attributed by some to lessons learnt from the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015. Dr Chu Hyein, 43, a family doctor in a clinic located in north west Seoul, highlights the extensive and important role family doctors have played in South Korea’s pandemic response. The doors to most family medicine clinics have remained ‘firmly open’ throughout the Covid-19 crisis, with a primary responsibility of triaging and assessing patients with Covid-19 symptoms, to determine if a referral is required for a free screening test. “All public screening tests are free of charge. We can refer patients who need tests to screening clinics without any hesitation,” Hyein explained. “Patients who test positive are referred to the Central Disaster and Safety Headquarters, who in turn refer them on to an ICU, a ‘negative pressure ward’ (special wards pumped with negative pressure to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases), or a ‘living treatment facility’ (similar to a hotel, with onsite nurses, for patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms to self-isolate in). Referrals depend on the severity of initial systems, as well as other risk factors such as any underlying health conditions or a patient’s age. “People could count on us during the pandemic,” she said, “not only to help with physical symptoms of the virus but to also provide lots of reassurance to our anxious communities whenever they felt scared of depressed by the coronavirus”. Family doctors worked Monday through to Saturday, offering support to patients remotely on the phone who were concerned about their symptoms or had fears of coming to visit the medical centre. “Of course, we were also continuing to manage other chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and asthma too,” she says. At the start of the pandemic, Hyein also volunteered at the Public Community Health Centre for Covid-19 screenings after work and at weekends, assessing potentially symptomatic patients, and conducting tests. Her experience emphasised the incredibly low preval‎ence of Covid-19 in the community. “Out of the hundreds that I tested, only two patients were confirmed positive cases of Covid-19 and were quarantined in hospitals and living treatment facilities,’ she said.  Hyein says the spread of ‘fake news’ by political groups suggesting a government exaggeration of the severity of the virus is now causing widespread confusion, making patients more reluctant to quarantine and putting vulnerable groups such as the elderly at risk. She says that family doctors are playing an important role in the fight against propaganda by educating patients with key public health messages to maintain community safety against the virus.