One Month After Suspension of Legislative Consultations... Essential Medical Care 'Consultation', Telemedicine 'Acceleration'

Amid a month since the suspension of the 'government-medical council' between the government and the medical community, the government appears to be pursuing a 'two-track' strategy that approaches the core issues opposed by the medical community?such as increasing medical personnel and telemedicine?separately. While continuing consultations with the medical community on essential medical support measures, including increasing medical school quotas and establishing public medical schools, the government is accelerating the legislation of telemedicine based on previous discussions.

January 26, the first medical issue consultation meeting held at Koreana Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. The medical-government consultation has been temporarily suspended since the second meeting on the 9th of last month.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the medical community on the 14th, the government-medical council formed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korean Medical Association (KMA) to discuss medical issues has not convened since the second meeting on the 9th of last month. On the day of the meeting, the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee decided to send the Nursing Act bill and the amendment to the Medical Service Act, which strengthens medical personnel qualification requirements, directly to the plenary session. In response, the KMA protested by temporarily suspending the government-medical council and forming an emergency countermeasure committee.

The government initially maintained that the government-medical council to discuss essential medical support measures should proceed as scheduled, regardless of the KMA's formation of the emergency committee. Im In-taek, Director of the Health and Medical Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, previously stated during a briefing on pediatric medical system improvement measures, "The medical issue consultation body is currently suspended, but I think it is necessary to separate discussions with the emergency committee and the consultation body." However, as the KMA has shifted to a full-scale struggle mode, it seems difficult to resume the government-medical council for the time being.

Given this situation, the government is also showing signs of distinguishing between areas requiring continuous discussion with the medical community and those where some agreement has been reached. Regarding the increase in medical school quotas, which the government is determined to pursue, the government plans to keep the door open for dialogue and monitor developments since no substantial discussions have taken place with the medical community. Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong said, "We are approaching this from the perspective of expanding the insufficient medical workforce and resolving regional and specialty imbalances," adding, "We are reviewing the appropriate scale of medical school quotas based on these principles and will promptly consult once the government-medical council resumes."

Conversely, the government has expressed strong determination to push forward telemedicine, on which broad principle agreements were reached in recent government-medical council meetings. At the second meeting, the government and the KMA agreed on the following under the goal of improving public health: ▲ face-to-face treatment as the principle, with telemedicine used as an auxiliary means ▲ operation focused on follow-up patients ▲ implementation mainly at clinic-level medical institutions, with telemedicine-only medical institutions prohibited. Along with this, the accumulation of telemedicine-related data since the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated its effectiveness and safety from a public health perspective, bolstering efforts for formal legislation.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare recently announced statistics showing that 13.79 million people used temporary telemedicine services over three years, explaining the necessity of institutionalizing telemedicine. Park Min-su, the ministry’s second vice minister, said, "While conducting temporary telemedicine, we were able to confirm its effectiveness and safety, and many of the previously raised concerns, such as concentration in large hospitals, have been largely dispelled," emphasizing, "We will establish supplementary measures so that both patients and medical professionals can use telemedicine safely and securely, and proceed with institutionalization."

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