Widely considered one of the top hospitals in South Korea, Samsung Medical Center is now being blamed for spreading Middle East respiratory syndrome in the country.

As of Monday, 72 cases occurred within its premises in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, accounting for nearly half of the 150 Korean cases of the disease. The outbreak in the hospital alone is enough to rival United Arab Emirates, the world’s No. 3 country in terms of MERS cases with 76.

An even bigger issue than the rising number of patients was the hospital’s seemingly poor management of infected patients.

Criticism on the hospital grew Saturday after it was learned that an ambulance worker had worked for nine days after showing MERS symptoms, coming into contact with roughly 200 patients and medical staff members. Despite being in close contact with MERS patient No. 14 ― who has already infected over 70 people ― the worker was omitted from the hospital’s quarantine list.

The number of potential patients snowballed, as the government’s response team said it would monitor 4,075 people believed to have come in contact with the worker.

According to the Health Ministry, the worker was left out of the list because he was an outsourced employee. While the Seoul Metropolitan Government vowed to inspect nonregular workers at the hospital, the incident sparked concern about how many more had slipped under the radar.

Sparking further questions about MERS monitoring in the country, a patient confirmed to have contracted MERS on June 7 was belatedly recognized as being a doctor at the hospital.

The MERS outbreak has also left the hospital understaffed as 291 of its 3,890 personnel have been quarantined for possible infection.

The Health Ministry said Samsung Medical Center failed in its initial countermeasures against the MERS, by limiting the scope of its management to the emergency room. Further inspection by health authorities showed that the infected patients had roamed outside the ER several times.

Seoul city government denounced the hospital’s “failure” in tracking down MERS and urged the government to intervene, as the hospital finally decided on a partial closure of its facilities Sunday.

Rival parties were split on the hospital’s responsibility for the situation.

“It (MERS containment) was never a task that could be entrusted to a single civilian hospital. The government’s favoritism toward a certain conglomerate and its concern about the said hospital’s profit exacerbated the situation,” said Moon Jae-in, the leader of main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.

Ruling Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung, on the other hand, said it was “not proper” to discuss the responsibility for the situation without procuring accurate information.

Samsung Medical Center said it had no plans to move its highest-profile guest, Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, from his VIP ward at the hospital.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)