Ministry of Health and Welfare Conducts Social Discussions to Implement Expansion of Medical Workforce

The Ministry of Health and Welfare conducted a social discussion to implement essential medical innovation strategies, including the expansion of medical personnel.

On the 1st at 10 a.m., the Ministry held the 2nd Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee meeting of 2023 at the Government Seoul Office, explaining policies being promoted to strengthen essential and regional medical care such as the 'Essential Medical Innovation Strategy' and the 'Plan to Expand Medical Personnel,' and listened to the opinions of the committee members.

Earlier, on the 19th, the Ministry established an 'Innovation Strategy' to drastically improve the regional essential medical delivery system centered on national university hospitals. As part of this, on the 26th, it announced a promotion plan regarding the expansion of medical personnel, a core task of the 'Innovation Strategy.' According to the plan, the government will investigate and verify each university's educational capacity and demand for increased enrollment, aiming to expand medical school admission quotas for the 2025 academic year. Additionally, a policy package will be prepared to alleviate the burden of medical accidents, strengthen compensation, and improve working conditions to attract medical personnel to regional and essential medical care.

In this process, the government will conduct intensive discussions on the policy to expand medical personnel within the medical community and the Medical Issues Consultative Body. Social discussions will also continue centered on the Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee, involving representatives of healthcare consumers such as consumer groups and patient organizations, as well as experts.

Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong stated, "Protecting the lives and health of the people is an indispensable and important value, and I ask all healthcare consumers, providers, and experts to contribute with an open mind to establishing policies to revitalize essential and regional medical care." He added, "The government will also develop health and medical reform measures optimized for social environmental changes such as aging to guarantee a healthy and safe future for the people."

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