Hong Nampyo, Changwon Special City Mayor: "Establishing Changwon Medical School... Expanding Medical Workforce Is the Only Solution"

Mention of Increasing 350 Personnel to 2000 Levels
Rising Concerns and Worries Among Local Civil Society

"The only solution to resolving regional medical disparities, securing essential public medical services, and achieving balanced national development is to establish a medical school in Changwon in the central Gyeongnam area to expand the supply of medical personnel."

Hong Nampyo, Changwon Special City Mayor.

Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City, Gyeongnam, emphasized this point, stating that the medical school quota should be significantly increased and a medical school in Changwon should be established after organizations representing the medical and academic communities announced that expanding the medical school quota by 350 students for the 2025 academic year is appropriate.

On the 9th, the Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Medical Schools announced that "a quota size of around 350 students is appropriate to be reflected in the 2025 academic year admission quota."

Although 40 medical schools nationwide responded to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's demand survey for medical school admission quotas, hoping for an increase of up to 2,847 students starting in 2025 and up to 3,953 students by 2030, the change in position to "350 students is appropriate" for the quota increase has led local citizens to oppose, stating that a significant increase in medical school quotas is necessary to resolve medical disparities.

During the 2000 separation of drug prescribing and dispensing, the number of doctors decreased by 351 due to demands from the medical community, and since 2006, the reduction in the number of doctors has been capped at 3,058.

Currently, the only medical school in Gyeongnam, Gyeongsang National University, with a quota of 76 students, cannot meet the demand for medical personnel in Gyeongnam.

The reasons and justification for establishing a medical school in the Changwon area are abundant.

As of 2021, Gyeongnam had the highest cerebrovascular disease mortality rate nationwide, and the number of deaths that could have been avoided with proper treatment was 1,560, which is 47.3 per 100,000 people, ranking first in the country.

This is just a fragment showing the medical imbalance caused by the shortage of doctors in Gyeongnam.

According to a public opinion survey conducted in November last year among Gyeongnam residents, more than half of respondents (56%) answered that there is a shortage of doctors, and over 84% supported the establishment of a medical school in Changwon Special City to solve the doctor shortage problem.

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