Public Health Doctors Skipping Military Training Assigned Mainly to Daegu and Gyeongbuk

On the morning of the 29th of last month, public health doctors dispatched to Keimyung University Daegu Dongsan Hospital in Jung-gu, Daegu, are receiving training from the attending physician.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that this year’s new medical public health doctors’ central job training will be held on the 5th at the Swiss Grand Convention Center in Seoul and the Novotel Ambassador in Daegu.

As confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) rapidly increased, the government appointed 742 public health doctors early this year. They were assigned to local medical institutions to support patient treatment and quarantine tasks. This training was organized to enhance infectious disease response job capabilities in preparation for deployment to screening clinics conducting diagnostic tests as well as patient treatment. They will be assigned to various regions such as Daegu and Gyeongbuk starting from the 9th.

Public health doctors are physicians responsible for medical duties at public health centers or branch health centers in medically underserved areas such as rural fishing villages. In principle, they undergo four weeks of military training and two days of central job training before being assigned to regions. However, the government stated that this year they decided to deploy them urgently to the field without military training. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, together with the Korea Health Promotion Institute, prepared the training content focusing on donning and doffing protective clothing practice, specimen collection methods, and screening clinic tasks to ensure that public health doctors can safely perform their duties on site.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.