The Pilot Project for Non-Face-to-Face Medical Care Started Last Month... "Inconvenient" Users Flood with Complaints

Since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions last month, non-face-to-face medical consultations have shifted to a pilot project, but it has been found that there are quite a few complaints from users of these services.

Medical staff conducting non-face-to-face consultations
[Photo by Ministry of Health and Welfare]

According to the Remote Medical Industry Council (WonSanHyeop), composed of the non-face-to-face medical platform industry and others, about 860 cases of inconvenience experienced by users of non-face-to-face medical consultations have been reported to the "Non-Face-to-Face Medical Consultation Pilot Project Complaint Center." It has only been 20 days since WonSanHyeop started operating the complaint center. Among the 860 reported cases, 25.7% were related to difficulties in visiting hospitals due to distance or time constraints, which was the most common issue. Complaints about restrictions on medication delivery (21.3%) and inconveniences in pediatric and adolescent care (15.1%) followed. WonSanHyeop plans to collect these complaints and opinions from users and deliver them to the government and the National Assembly.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, anyone could receive non-face-to-face medical consultations through mobile phone applications (apps) and other means. However, since last month, as the COVID-19 alert level was downgraded, the service changed to only allow follow-up patients who had received face-to-face treatment for the same illness at the same hospital or clinic within the past 30 days. Medication delivery has been basically prohibited.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that after transitioning to the non-face-to-face medical consultation pilot project, they would hold "pilot project advisory meetings" consisting of government, medical community, and platform industry representatives to prepare improvements. However, the non-face-to-face platform industry expressed dissatisfaction, saying, "We receive urgent contact the day before meetings or they are held irregularly, causing the process to fizzle out," and "many companies in the industry are shutting down during this time."

According to the industry, platform companies such as Seolz, Padak, Baropil, and Chekit have recently exited the non-face-to-face medical consultation business, and additional companies are expected to cease operations soon. Due to many restrictions on non-face-to-face consultations, users prefer to visit hospitals directly, and medical staff are reluctant because of the increased paperwork required. Since the transition to the pilot project, the profitability of platform companies has significantly declined.

WonSanHyeop requested, "Please recognize the pilot project not as a 'temporary patch system' filling the gap until the legalization of non-face-to-face medical consultations, but as a process of social deliberation and planning for the legalization of non-face-to-face medical consultations." They added, "We urge the prompt concretization of evaluation goals and indicators, evaluation methods, and schedules."

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