City and Provincial Councilors of Changwon, Gyeongnam: "Establishing a Medical School in Changwon is a Natural Prescription to Reduce Regional Medical Disparities"

On the 19th, as the government announced measures to strengthen regional and essential medical services centered on local national universities, including the expansion of medical school quotas, city and provincial council members from Changwon, Gyeongnam, expressed their support and urged the establishment of a medical school in the region.

Gyeongnam provincial council members and Changwon city council members held a joint press conference at the Gyeongnam Provincial Council press room on the same day, emphasizing the necessity of establishing a new medical school in the Changwon area.

Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly members and Changwon City Council members are urging the establishment of a medical school in the Changwon area.
[Photo by Lee Seryeong]

About 20 people, including Kim I-geun, Chairperson of the Changwon Special City Council, and Kang Yong-beom, Vice Chairperson of the Provincial Council, stated, “Expanding the medical school quota alone cannot fundamentally resolve the medical disparities and inequalities in medical services between regions,” and argued, “Only the establishment of a medical school that carries out the entire process of selecting, educating, and deploying doctors needed in the region can solve this problem.”

They emphasized, “If a medical school is established in the Changwon area, it will be possible to secure medical personnel within the province and train medical staff to be deployed in medically vulnerable areas.”

They explained, “Currently, the medical school quota in Gyeongnam is 2.3 per 100,000 people, which is far below the average of 5.9, and the number of doctors per 1,000 people is 17.4, which does not even reach the national average of 2.18.”

They added, “With a population of 3.28 million, Gyeongnam produces only 76 doctors annually, and there is only one medical school in the province. Moreover, the number of medical school quotas relative to the population of cities and provinces nationwide ranks only 13th. The medical utilization rate of Gyeongnam residents is among the lowest in the country, and 14 out of 18 cities and provinces in the province have been designated as emergency-vulnerable areas.”

Kim I-geun, Chairman of Changwon Special City, Gyeongnam (center), is delivering a press statement.
[Photo by Lee Se-ryeong]

The council members appealed, “In the past year, excluding dental care, the proportion of residents who could not visit a hospital or clinic when they wanted ranked first or second nationwide, indicating the serious difficulty residents feel in accessing medical services.”

They continued, “Among large cities outside the metropolitan area with populations exceeding one million, Changwon is the only city without any medical education institutions such as medical, dental, oriental medicine, or pharmacy schools,” and stated, “Local talents aspiring to become medical professionals leave for other regions, and new talents do not come, making the decline in the young population increasingly prominent,” emphasizing the necessity of establishing a medical school in Changwon.

They concluded, “The establishment of a medical school in the Changwon area is a natural remedy to reduce regional medical disparities and protect the life and health rights of residents,” and strongly urged, “We strongly call for the inclusion of the establishment of a medical school in Changwon, reflecting the wishes of 3.28 million Gyeongnam residents and 1.04 million Changwon citizens, in the government’s plan to increase medical school quotas.”

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