Jeonnam Province Conveys Local Residents' Voices on 'Establishment of National Medical School' to Ministry of Health and Welfare

Jeonnam Province held a ‘Regional Meeting for Innovation in Regional and Essential Medical Care’ with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to convey the local community’s voice that a national medical school should be established in Jeonnam.

According to the province on the 24th, this meeting was held by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to identify regional health care issues by region, listen to the voices from the field in Jeonnam including local universities, medical institutions, and civic groups, and discuss improvement plans.

About 20 people attended, including Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeonnam Province, Jeon Byung-wang, Director of Health Care Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, regional hospital directors, university presidents, and resident representatives. The meeting proceeded with the Ministry’s presentation on regional and essential medical care innovation strategies, Jeonnam Province’s proposals on regional health care issues, and collection of opinions and discussions from the field.

Director Jeon Byung-wang emphasized strengthening the essential medical delivery system, expanding the physician workforce, and reinforcing the national support system, expressing the intention to prepare policies through communication between regions.

At the meeting, Jeonnam Province welcomed and actively supported government policies such as increasing medical school quotas to overcome essential medical service gaps and the crisis of regional medical collapse, while emphasizing the necessity of establishing a national medical school in Jeonnam along with the existing announcement of medical school quota expansion.

Participants presented opinions on the current status and difficulties of the medical field in Jeonnam and discussed the government’s policy directions for regional and essential medical care innovation, including expanding the physician workforce.

Heo Jeong, co-chairman of the Jeonnam Provincial Citizens’ Committee for Attracting a National Medical School and an obstetrician operating in the region, pointed out the shortage of medical personnel in rural and fishing villages due to the concentration of doctors in the metropolitan area. He proposed establishing a national medical school in Jeonnam to select local talents and have them work in the region to resolve regional medical imbalance.

Kim Dong-guk, director of Haenam General Hospital, said, “Jeonnam, a rural and fishing village area, cannot secure doctors even when offering high salaries and housing, and even when doctors are hired with difficulty, low profits make operation difficult,” demanding government-level countermeasures.

Choi Woon-chang, president of the Jeonnam Medical Association, suggested refraining from expanding metropolitan hospitals and utilizing retired doctors; Park In-ho, director of Mokpo Korean Hospital, proposed support plans for regional medical institutions to expand essential medical care; and Kim Dae-yeon, director of Suncheon Medical Center, supported expanding the physician quota, presenting various opinions.

Governor Kim Young-rok explained the success case of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) in Canada, where two universities cooperated to establish a single joint medical school that solved regional medical imbalance without enforcing mandatory regional service, emphasizing the need for a regionally based medical school to expand essential medical care.

He added, “On the 15th, we benchmarked the NOSM medical school in Canada and are preparing ways to apply it to Jeonnam’s circumstances,” and “I hope that along with this government’s announcement to expand medical school quotas, the establishment of a national medical school in Jeonnam for the 2026?2027 academic year will also be announced to resolve medical workforce imbalance and expand essential medical care in Jeonnam Province.”

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