Government: "President Wants to Meet Medical Residents... Please Engage in Dialogue"

Operation of 'Metropolitan Emergency Medical Situation Rooms' in 4 Regions
Implementation of Non-Face-to-Face Medical Treatment Expanded to Public Health Centers and Branches

The government urged that President Yoon Suk-yeol personally wants to meet and talk with the residents and called for communication efforts.

Park Min-su, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, is giving a briefing on the doctors' collective action at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the Government Seoul Office Building on the morning of the 3rd. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters for the doctors' collective action held a briefing at 11 a.m. on the 3rd and announced this. Park Min-su, the 2nd Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, said, "The Korean Association of Medical School Professors (KAMSP) advised Park Dan, the representative of the Korean Intern and Resident Association, that if the president wishes to meet, they should meet unconditionally, and the president said he wants to meet the residents, who are the parties involved in the collective action, and hear their stories directly." He added, "The government stated that it will discuss openly with the medical community. We ask the medical community to engage in dialogue and communication with the government so that reasonable discussions can take place."

He continued, "We hope the doctors will stop the collective action and engage in dialogue. The government is ready to communicate without any conditions or formalities," adding, "If a more rational and unified alternative based on scientific evidence is presented, the government will discuss it with an open attitude."

He also reiterated that efforts are being accelerated to form the Presidential Commission on Medical Reform as a social consultative body. He said, "We will discuss so that the commission can be composed to reflect various voices, including not only the government and medical community but also consumer and patient recommendations."

The emergency medical system will also be supplemented and strengthened. First, since the 1st, 'Regional Emergency Medical Situation Rooms' have been operating in four regions: the Seoul metropolitan area, Chungcheong region, Gyeongsang region, and Jeolla region. Vice Minister Park said, "The Regional Emergency Medical Situation Room operates 24 hours as a control tower, with one doctor familiar with the local situation and 2 to 4 situation staff working in shifts to effectively support patient transfers according to regional circumstances." He added, "The doctor in the situation room comprehensively considers the severity of the patient and the capacity of hospitals within the region to promptly connect the patient to an appropriate hospital."

The institutions allowed to conduct telemedicine will also be expanded to include public health centers and health sub-centers. As part of the emergency medical measures, the government fully permitted telemedicine at all types of medical institutions starting February 23. However, public health centers and health sub-centers were excluded from the eligible institutions. Vice Minister Park explained, "Starting today (the 3rd), telemedicine will be temporarily permitted at 246 public health centers and 1,341 health sub-centers," and "As a result, patients with mild illnesses can receive consultation, diagnosis, and prescriptions through telemedicine at local public health centers or health sub-centers."

He also announced plans to pre-allocate and notify the increase in faculty quotas for each university as a measure to expand full-time professors at national university medical schools.

Meanwhile, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on the same day, as of 12 p.m. on the 2nd, only 131 out of 3,068 interns scheduled for appointment this year had completed registration. Vice Minister Park said, "There are concerns about future resident recruitment," and "The government will additionally review whether there are other methods."

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