| Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great honor to introduce our Raphael clinic to you today.
Rapheal Clinic is a medical volunteer organization that practices God's Love by providing medical aid and relief to foreign workers living in Korea. | 1997.4.13 | First medical aid (Clinic CaSA) | | 1997.5 | Move to Catholic University Campus (Holy Spirit Campus)
17 Departments | | 1997.10.25 | Official name changed to Raphael Clinic | | 1997.12 | Dr. JH Kim designed the Clinic's logo | | 1998.1 | Started Relief Service | | 1998.6.13 | Move to Dong Sung High School
Auditorium | | 1999. | Missionary work for Chinese-Korean | Rapheal Clinic arose from the activities of CaSA(the Catholic Student Association of the Seoul National University (SNU) College of Medicine), in 1958 to provide free medical services to the poor.
But with the growth of medical insurance in Korea, CaSA, which has served the poor for the past 35 years was beginning to lose its importance.
Amidst such changes, the Catholic Professors Association of SNU College of Medicine heard about the medical plight of foreign workers in Korea.
Upon hearing this news, the Association decided to provide medical service to this group, touching the lives of these workers in a small, positive way and gave their first medical session at the Haewha Catholic Church in April 1997. With the number of patients increasing, Raphael Clinic had to move to a large 3-story building, in the Holy Spirit Campus at Catholic University.
After moving, not only did more patients started to visit but also doctors including alumni of the CaSA, and voluntiers who offered their services to the Clinic. Soon, the Clinic started to grow with old and new partners.
Now, the Clinic has 17 departments and has become literally a " semi-general" clinic.
With the growth of the clinic, Bishop Woo-IL Kang changed the clinic name from Clinic CaSA to "Raphael Clinic", after the angel of healing Rapheal.
Professor Jin-ho Kim, a now-retired professor, designed the Clinic's logo. In 1997 as Korea plunged into the IMF crisis, many foreign laborers lost their jobs, creating a need for human rights consultations and relief aid.
This need along with the winning of the 2nd Bishop Hak-sun Ji Peace Award became the impetus for the Rapheal Clinic to open in January 1998.
While the Sungshin Complex was being renovated, the Raphael Clinic moved, taking with it the 150 patients, 50 volunteers, and all diagnostic and therapeutic equipments to the Dong-sung High School Auditorium
As the number of Chinese (Korean-decent) patients increased, the Rapheal Clinic formed "a introduction to Catholicism class" to begin missionary work for Chinese immigrants.
To promote cross-cultural exchange, the Clinic has annually held the "international singing competition" with the cardinal Su Whan Kim on Korean traditional holidays. 
We were celebrating 5th anniversery Starting with the 12:30 pm mass, medical service continues until the last patient has been seen.
Twenty-five doctors run 17 departments, including departments of internal medicine, surgery, neurology, orthopedic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, urology, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, psychology, anesthesiology, pediatrics, dentistry, radiology, clinical pathology, and pharmacology. About 80 volunteers (including medical and dental students) support other supplementary departments and functions: such as: transfer, information and admittance, preliminary check-up, education and treatment, main information desk, internal medicine information desk, ophthalmology information desk, dentistry information desk, medicine distribution center, relief care, interpretation, record keeping, events and environment, stock management, promotion, volunteer orientation (OT), circulation.... If our Clinic is unable to help a patient, then we refer and transfer the patient to a second or third care facility.
Some secondary facilities are SNU hospital, Asan Medical Center- Seoul, Seoul Red Cross Hospital....
In addition, we receive assistance from Hanyang University &endash; Internal Medicine, Yonsei Clinic, Nuclear Hospital, Choi Eye Clinic, Park Eye Clinic... The Relief Center provides relief items and human rights consultation.
To those patients who did not eat on the day of their visit, the Pundang Hope Church gives out bread and drinks, and an anonymous lady and her son prepare ramen for patients.
At the Human Rights Consulation Center, foreign workers can receive advice and information on late paychecks, surgery payment, admission payment, etc. , and distributes second-hand clothing collected by volunteers.
They also provide English newspapers and other donation items. In 1998, 4,745 patients visited the Clinic;
in 1999, 7,034, a rise of 48.2%(2,289 patients) compared to 1998;
in 2000(1990.4-2001.3), 9,230 patients, a rise of 31.2%(2,196 patients) compared to 1999.
In 2001, with patients having to make appointments for visits, the number of patients were 9,681 from the previous year. As of April 2002, the Clinic has treated about 300 to 400 foreign workers at every medical session. Among the patients, 5,104 patients were Chinese citizens, who were the largest patient group. In this group, 4,840 patients visited the internal medicine department for several years. Looking back, the things we thought were impossible have , in fact, taken shape quietly and gradually.
In 2002, we hope to realize the following dreams.
About 120 volunteers lend a helping hand at every medical session.
We need a volunteer support system that can optimize each volunteer's talents.
In particular, we need to establish a more in-depth volunteer education program that can instill the spirit of volunteering to the medical college student.
Such a program would also promote long-term volunteering in regular volunteers.
To overcome language barriers and offer a better overall medical service to patients, the subintern program was introduced.
In this program, one intern becomes the "guardian" for one patient and guides the patients through the entire medical consultation process.
Currently, 20 medical students from Korea University, Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Ewha University participate in this program.
We need a system that can provide consultation for weekday calls by patients and care for emergencies. |
