The district competed against all 25 Seoul autonomous districts at Seoul City Hall on Tuesday, earning top honors for its mass-casualty response and disaster communications network capabilities — a fourth consecutive year winning the award.
Gangbuk-gu announced that it won the grand prize (Seoul Metropolitan Government Mayor's Award) in the comprehensive training category at the 2026 Seoul Disaster Medical Education and Training Competition, held Tuesday at Seoul City Hall.
Co-hosted and organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Emergency Medical Service Support Center, the competition brought together rapid-response teams from public health centers across all 25 of Seoul's autonomous districts to test their disaster medical response capabilities.
The event featured a range of programs, including a tabletop exercise simulating a mass-casualty incident in a real disaster scenario, presentations of outstanding disaster medical response cases, a disaster-themed quiz competition covering disaster laws and emergency medical response manuals, and a mobile quiz.
The Gangbuk-gu Public Health Center's rapid-response team demonstrated its ability to quickly assess situations and respond systematically, as well as strong collaborative coordination among team members. The team was particularly recognized for its practical response skills — carrying out assigned roles across a variety of scenarios that could arise in the field and maintaining stable response procedures throughout. The result reflects consistently repeated simulation drills and steadily strengthened cooperation with health and medical institutions.
With this win, the district has claimed prizes for four consecutive years since 2023, again demonstrating the disaster medical response capabilities it has consistently built up. Having previously represented Seoul at a national competition hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the inaugural event, Gangbuk-gu is set to represent Seoul again at a national competition scheduled for November.
"In a disaster situation, swift and accurate on-site response is above all else the most critical factor," Gangbuk-gu District Mayor Jeong Chang-su said. "We will continue to strengthen our response systems through repeated, real-world training and do our utmost to protect the lives and safety of our residents."
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