Wonsan Association: "Non-face-to-face Medical Care Site in 'Great Chaos'... Fivefold Increase in Appointment Cancellations"

Solution for Determining Revisit Eligibility Currently Unfeasible
"Please Listen to Field Voices When Evaluating Pilot Projects"

Since the implementation of the pilot project for non-face-to-face medical consultations, claims have emerged that the refusal and cancellation rate of non-face-to-face consultation requests by medical institutions has increased fivefold compared to before. The platform industry has demanded prompt measures, stating that the non-face-to-face medical consultation field is in "great chaos."

The Remote Medical Industry Council (Wonsanhyeop) issued a statement on the 5th, saying, "According to the council's own investigation, the refusal and cancellation rate of patients' non-face-to-face consultation requests is over 50%, which is five times the level before the pilot project," adding, "Both patients requesting consultations and medical institutions refusing them are consuming too much time and energy."

Wonsanhyeop pointed out that severe confusion is occurring in the process of verifying the target patients for the pilot project, which is limited to 'returning patients' except for some cases. The Ministry of Health and Welfare recommended that medical institutions directly verify whether patients are eligible for the pilot project, but this verification is only possible at medical institutions that create and store medical records, and neither platforms nor patients themselves can access this information, resulting in repeated cycles of 'consultation registration → eligibility verification → consultation cancellation.'

Wonsanhyeop appealed, "Complaints and grievances from patients who were judged not to be eligible for the pilot project and thus could not receive consultations are also being handled by medical institutions and platforms, not the government." They added, "Medical institutions are requesting platforms to develop technology and take measures due to concerns about providing non-face-to-face consultations to ineligible patients by mistake, but unless institutional and legal limitations are resolved, it is impossible to develop solutions to address this issue."

Wonsanhyeop also referred to the recent Supreme Court final acquittal in the 'Tada' incident and urged a prompt evaluation of the non-face-to-face medical consultation pilot project. Wonsanhyeop stated, "When announcing the pilot project, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would 'periodically evaluate and supplement the scope of target patients,' but the timing and specific methods have not been disclosed," and added, "We earnestly request that the evaluation of the pilot project listen carefully to the voices from the field of non-face-to-face medical consultations."

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