Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam 'Health' What's Going On? National Health Insurance Service Busan Gyeongnam Headquarters Signs MOU for Cooperation with Ulsan and Gyeongnam 'Public Healthcare'

Regional Customized Health Promotion Projects, Joint Promotion of Public Medical Expansion and Health Policy Development

The National Health Insurance Service Busan Gyeongnam Regional Headquarters, Gyeongsangnam-do Public Health Medical Support Group, and Ulsan City Public Health Medical Support Group signed an MOU on the 7th at the NHIS Busan Gyeongnam Regional Headquarters.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Why is the ‘health level’ of Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (Bu-Ul-Gyeong) like this? A joint cooperation project is being promoted to assess the inadequate ‘health performance’ of the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam regions and to strengthen the public healthcare sector.

The National Health Insurance Service Busan-Gyeongnam Regional Headquarters (Head Jang Su-mok) signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the 7th with the Gyeongsangnam-do Public Health Medical Support Group (Director Jeong Baek-geun) and the Ulsan Public Health Medical Support Group (Director Ok Min-su) at the NHIS Busan-Gyeongnam Regional Headquarters.

According to 2019 Statistics Korea data, among the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces, Busan ranked first in cardiovascular mortality rate, Gyeongnam ranked last in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, and Ulsan ranked first in drinking rate and cerebrovascular mortality rate, indicating that the health level of the Bu-Ul-Gyeong region is vulnerable.

Busan’s proportion of public hospital beds is 6.0%, lower than the national average of 9.7%, and Ulsan is the only one among the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces nationwide without a public hospital. Gyeongnam is a region lacking essential medical services (such as childbirth and emergency medical care).

To take care of the health of Bu-Ul-Gyeong citizens, the NHIS formed a working-level consultative body with the public health medical support groups of Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam on the 18th of last month and signed the MOU on this day.

An MOU was previously signed with the Busan Public Health Medical Support Group (Director Kim Chang-hoon) in 2016.

This agreement was made to closely cooperate in the fields of health promotion projects and health and medical projects to raise the health level of local residents and improve health equity.

The contents of the agreement include △ provision and utilization of health and medical usage indicators △ cooperation in region-customized health promotion projects, expansion of public healthcare, and policy development △ establishment of a virtuous cycle system for planning, implementing, and monitoring results to identify and solve local health issues and problems.

Additionally, a consultative body will be operated to continuously discover and discuss projects that can cooperate and connect mutually, as well as customized services for vulnerable groups.

Director Jeong Baek-geun said, “We will do our best to improve the health of local citizens,” and proposed, “Let us make efforts such as joint research for the development of health policies for the entire Bu-Ul-Gyeong region and local-level health promotion projects.”

Director Ok Min-su said, “Let’s not stop at the MOU but prepare practical measures such as holding project briefings promoted by both organizations.”

Head Jang Su-mok said, “The NHIS will fulfill its role as a government policy supporter for expanding public healthcare and as a health and medical data management corporation,” and added, “It is time to develop suitable health policies and health promotion project models for the community to improve the health level of citizens in the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam regions and to work together.”

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