The government has refuted media reports that the mortality rate of emergency rooms in the nation rose after trainee doctors resigned en masse earlier this year. 

The health ministry said in a briefing on Wednesday that the number of patients who died in the emergency room(ER), in fact, slipped three-point-four percent on-year in the first seven months of this year to stand at 27-thousand-176. 

The ministry added that the number of deaths of low acuity patients fell 12-and-a-half percent this year from last year to four-hundred-84. 

The head of the ministry’s Office for Planning and Coordination, Jung Yoon-soon, said while the number of critically-ill patients in ERs maintained a consistent level this year, the number of ER visits by patients in less critical condition saw a sharp drop. 

The mortality rate of ERs is calculated by the number of deaths out of the total number of patients who visited the ER. Jung said that while there was hardly any change in the number of deaths at emergency rooms, the mortality rate appeared to be up as the number of ER visits fell.