KMA: "Government's Essential Medical Care Innovation Strategy Encouraging... Follow-up Measures Needed"

Essential Medical Innovation Strategy Excludes Medical School Quota Figures
"Legal Burden Relief and Adequate Compensation Needed for Essential Medical Workers"

The Korean Medical Association evaluated the essential medical care innovation strategy announced by the government on the 19th as "encouraging." The expansion of medical school enrollment quotas was excluded from this essential medical care innovation strategy.

Korean Medical Association Ichon-dong Hall. [Photo by Korean Medical Association]

Earlier, the government announced an innovation strategy aimed at strengthening regional and essential medical care by enhancing the capabilities of local national university hospitals to the level of major metropolitan general hospitals. The expected expansion of medical school admission quotas, which was anticipated to be included in the announcement, was omitted from the content. However, the government only mentioned the necessity of expansion, stating that "expanding medical personnel and nurturing talent is essential."

In a statement released after the innovation strategy announcement, the KMA said, "It is encouraging in the sense that the government is showing its determination to take responsibility for the lives and health of the people by guaranteeing uninterrupted essential medical care," and added, "In a situation where social demands for measures to expand essential medical care are growing, the government's active efforts to overcome the crisis in essential and regional medical care are positively evaluated."

The KMA fully agrees on the need to foster and support essential medical care. The association stated, "Essential medical care, which is directly linked to the lives of the people, has been in a crisis of collapse due to poor conditions, low medical fees, legal liability issues related to medical accidents, and the lack of support measures, despite the government's need for active support," and added, "In a situation where essential medical care in our country is seriously collapsing, public concern remains high, and our medical community also strongly agrees on the need to foster and support essential and regional medical care."

There were also demands for follow-up measures. The KMA said, "We will do our best to ensure that systematic and realistic support measures for essential and regional medical care are continuously supplemented," and requested the government to "focus on seeking follow-up measures to support essential medical care, such as alleviating the legal burdens on essential medical workers and providing sufficient compensation, until the fundamental problems of avoidance and collapse of essential medical care are overcome and essential medical care is normalized."

The statement did not include any content related to the expansion of medical school admission quotas. However, the KMA indirectly criticized by saying, "Regarding the recent phenomenon where unverified information about medical issues closely related to public health has been indiscriminately spread despite not being official government announcements and widely covered by major media without fact-checking, our medical community hopes that the professionalism of the press, which does not violate reporting guidelines and ethics, will also be protected."

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