Since 2005, Daegu has been heading to be a medical-care-centered city jointly with the public and private sectors. In 2009, the city had presented a joint brand of local medical institutions, "Medi-city Daegu," which later achieved the grand prize of South Korea's most representative brand for six times in a row. Based on this, Daegu had shown successful prevention and control in the first outbreak of COVID-19, raising the status of "K-prevention." The efforts and role of the Medi-city Daegu Council (MDC), a public-private governance organization, played a key part in this. In response, Health Kyunghyang prepared a special series of articles about Medicity Daegu Council. <Editor's Note>
On February 18, a red light came on in Daegu as a 61-year-old woman, the 31st COVID-19 confirmed case, had turned out to be the super-spreader. However, the voluntary physical distancing of citizens, fast diagnostic testing, the establishment of treatment beds and residential treatment centers, and securing of medical personnel. In such an urgent situation, the public-private cooperation was successfully carried out by Medi-city Daegu Council (MDC, AKA Daegu Medical Tourism Council).
■MDC, playing a pivotal role as the "control tower"
At the time the super-spreader had been reported, Daegu lacked a proper control system. However, MDC quickly gathered experts from each related medical field to divide the roles for stabilizing the situation and preventing further spread of the disease.
Established in 2007, MDC is a health care institutional council that consists of eight large hospitals in the region, the deputy mayor of Daegu economy, the president of Daegu Medical Association, and the head of the Daegu Association of Korea Medicine. Chairman Cha Soon-do of MDC formed a board meeting at 8 in the morning of February 19, the day after the 31st confirmed case had been reported, and the heads of all institutions assembled in the city to discuss the initial response with Mayor Kwon Young-jin.
Since MDC was not a medical institution, it could not directly step into the medical sites. Instead, as a kind of control tower, it coordinated the positions of the city and medical institutions.
Chairman Cha said that coordination of opinions was the hardest at that time. This is because there was discord between Daegu and medical institutions due to the increasing number of confirmed cases but decreasing number of available sickbeds and medical staff. However, Chairman Cha did not give up and persuaded both sides to make up for the shortcomings. In the end, medical institutions devoted themselves to treating patients even at the risk of losses, and Daegu spared no support for them.
"There is still a possibility of a recurrence in the future as COVID-19 is currently on its third prevalence," Chairman Cha said. "The only way to quash the virus quickly is to practice distancing in daily life and follow by the rules for prevention and control of the infection."
■ Dear citizens, we need your participation!
MDC was spared no efforts to support medical personnel fighting against COVID-19. For instance, it appropriately distributed donated goods (mask, thermal imaging cameras, and thermometers) to ▲10 hospitals dedicated to infectious diseases ▲7 health care organizations ▲52 leading medical institutions in Daegu.
The council focused its efforts on everyday prevention by conducting "appeals to citizens" and "campaigns to overcome COVID." For this, Daegu city was not as chaotic as the outside world thought. Indeed, a U.S. YouTuber living in Korea had toured Daegu and found that the streets were quiet and empty. There was no panic-buying the masks in the belief that the local communities could overcome the contagious virus by cooperating altogether. This is analyzed to have worked out successfully as MDC has been establishing trust with residents by having the Patient Safety Day events and the movement for medical service improvements.
Moreover, the participation of volunteer doctors from all over the country also played a part in the successful prevention and control. The Daegu Medical Association voluntarily participated in classifying patients waiting to be hospitalized by telephone counseling in March with 300 to 400 volunteer doctors. Also, the mortality rate of confirmed cases decreased by dividing them into four stages: mild, moderate, severe, and very critical.
"We spent a hard time until the day, February 29, when we announced 741 confirmed cases after the occurrence of the first case in Daegu," Chairman Cha added. "We worked hard to defeat COVID-19 in cooperation with the public and private sectors, but we also hope proper compensation will be made so that their sacrifices can be well respected."
