Resumption of 'Home Medical Visit Service for Elderly Living Alone' in Nam-gu, Gwangju

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (District Mayor Kim Byeong-nae) announced on the 30th that it will resume the highly satisfactory medical home visit service for the elderly after about 10 months.

The medical home visit service for elderly living alone is a pledge project of Mayor Kim Byeong-nae during the 7th local government term. Medical doctors and staff working at the Nam-gu Public Health Center visit the homes of elderly people living alone to directly check their health status and provide guidance on health management methods.

In particular, to help elderly living alone maintain a healthy life in their later years, this project provides services such as treatment cost reductions and free benefits so that they can receive specialized medical treatment at dozens of private medical institutions including hospitals and dental clinics within the district, which have signed public-private cooperative health and medical business agreements with Nam-gu Office.

This service has been continuously promoted since July 2018 but was inevitably suspended earlier this year due to the impact of COVID-19.

As the spread of COVID-19 has subsided and the social distancing level 1 policy has been maintained, Nam-gu started visiting two elderly households living alone in Yangnim-dong on the 29th and is gradually expanding the service.

In addition, it has been reported that a total of 55 elderly people have benefited from various medical services through the medical home visit service for elderly living alone from July 2018 to the end of last year.

In 2018, medical treatment and customized health consultation services were provided to 19 elderly people, and among them, 11 elderly received specialized treatment at private medical institutions such as hospitals and oriental medicine clinics.

In 2019, the medical home visit service was provided to 36 elderly people, and 9 of them used medical services at private medical institutions including ophthalmology, dentistry, and internal medicine.

Mayor Kim Byeong-nae said, “We will do our best to thoroughly promote the medical home visit service project for elderly living alone, a pledge in the health and medical field, so that elderly people living alone in the district can enjoy a healthy life.”

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