Seongbuk-gu Wins Excellence Award at the '2020 Local Government Policy Awards'

Awarded for 'Health Firewall Built by Min (People) and Gwan (Officials), Our Neighborhood Health Doctor'... Recognized for Achievements in Establishing a Consumer-Centered Integrated Care System for Health, Medical, and Welfare through Public-Private Cooperation

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongbuk-gu (Mayor Seungro Lee) won the Excellence Award for the ‘Our Neighborhood Health Doctor’ project at the ‘2020 Local Government Policy Awards’ hosted by the Korean Local Government Association.

Now in its 8th year, the ‘Local Government Policy Awards’ were established to discover and spread policies of local governments that have significantly contributed to regional development or can serve as exemplary cases for other local governments.

The ‘Health Firewall Built by Citizens and Officials, Our Neighborhood Health Doctor’ project, which won the award for Seongbuk-gu, is a policy that provides preventive and proactive demand-centered integrated health, medical, and welfare management services to vulnerable elderly citizens aged 70 and above with chronic diseases through collaboration among medical institutions, public health center visiting nurses, and community welfare planners.

To this end, Seongbuk-gu established an institutional foundation for community cooperation and support by enacting the ordinance on May 31, 2018, the first of its kind nationwide, concerning the operation and support of the Senior Health Doctor System in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul. To ensure continuous project progress, the district held resident policy forums, selected health doctors through medical institutions, formed a public-private operation committee, and opened a Health Doctor Center. By linking medical institutions, public health centers, and the community, it established a public-private joint integrated health, medical, and welfare care system, thereby building a preventive and proactive health management system.

Seongbuk-gu, in cooperation with 35 health doctors from 33 medical institutions, public health center visiting nurses, and social welfare personnel, has provided a total of 1,408 health doctor services since 2018 to 626 elderly citizens, including basic elderly health surveys, medical supplies support, job guidance, and mental counseling. This has helped eliminate blind spots in medical and welfare services, strengthened social safety nets through prevention, early intervention, customized health management, medical referrals and coordination, and linkage to various community health and welfare supports.

Seungro Lee, Mayor of Seongbuk-gu, stated, “We will continue to expand the organic cooperation system between public and private sectors, including local medical institutions, create a prevention-centered comprehensive health management system, and do our best to lead the operation of a demand-centered integrated health, medical, and welfare care system.”

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