Prime Minister Han: "Medical Reform Must Resolve Decades-Accumulated Contradictions"

Discussion on Next Year's Autonomous Increase Plan for National University Medical Schools
Prime Minister Han Announces Directly After Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is speaking about the quota of medical schools while attending the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 19th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo emphasized on the 19th, "The government will face reality and resolve the contradictions and problems accumulated over decades through medical reform."

In his opening remarks at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) meeting on doctors' collective action held at the Government Seoul Office that afternoon, Prime Minister Han said, "The need to quickly resolve the accumulated collapse of essential medical care and local medical services is growing stronger."

At the meeting, Prime Minister Han planned to discuss as a key agenda the proposal made the previous day by some national university presidents regarding the '50-100% autonomous recruitment of next year's medical school enrollment increase.'

Regarding this proposal, Prime Minister Han explained, "Since this is an issue of great public interest, I will organize the government's position and explain it in detail as soon as the CDSCH meeting concludes."

Earlier, the presidents of six national universities?Kangwon National University, Kyungpook National University, Gyeongsang National University, Chungnam National University, Chungbuk National University, and Jeju National University?requested the Ministry of Education the previous day to "take necessary measures to allow universities to autonomously recruit new students within 50-100% of the increased medical school quotas for the 2025 academic year, considering each university's circumstances."

The government appears to be moving toward resolving conflicts with the medical community by partially accepting this 'university-specific autonomous enrollment increase plan.'

Additionally, Prime Minister Han emphasized that the government is doing its utmost to ensure the emergency medical system operates without disruption.

He explained, "The government is fully committed to preventing delays in surgeries and treatments for critically ill patients and establishing a rapid transfer and referral system for emergency patients," adding, "to this end, 168 general hospitals nationwide have been designated as cooperative hospitals for advanced hospitals."

He continued, "Among these, 47 general hospitals operate as cancer treatment cooperative hospitals to minimize delays in surgeries for cancer patients," and "a cancer patient consultation call center is also being operated at the National Cancer Center."

Furthermore, the government is strengthening the one-on-one customized support function of the damage report support center and plans to enhance the control tower function for emergency patients, he added.

Prime Minister Han stated, "Last Tuesday, the President said that medical reform will be pursued without pause for the future of the Republic of Korea, while rational opinions will be listened to with an open mind and reflected," and added, "We will communicate and cooperate with all sectors and do our best to promote medical reform."

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