Ministry of Health and Welfare Issues 'Interest' Level Alert for Health Care Disaster Crisis... "Minimizing On-Site Confusion"

Following the National Assembly plenary session's approval of the Nursing Act, the health and medical sector has launched a strong struggle, including a total strike, prompting the government to take urgent measures to prevent confusion in medical settings.

Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong (center) is presiding over an emergency situation inspection meeting related to the Nursing Act on the 28th.
[Photo by Ministry of Health and Welfare]

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On the 28th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it has declared the 'Interest' stage of the health and medical disaster crisis and formed an emergency situation inspection team to discuss response measures to minimize confusion in medical settings.

The 'Interest' stage of the health and medical disaster crisis, according to the 'Standard Manual for Health and Medical Disaster Crisis Management,' is a stage to manage situations in preparation for strikes or work stoppages by health and medical-related organizations, and to establish treatment measures and cooperation systems with related agencies.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare held an emergency executive meeting immediately after the Nursing Act approval the previous day, followed by an internal crisis evaluation meeting. Considering the trends in the medical sector and the conditions for issuing crisis alerts, it decided to declare the 'Interest' stage, which was finalized through an emergency situation inspection meeting on the same day.

The emergency situation inspection team is led by Second Vice Minister Park Min-su as the head and Im In-taek, Director of Health and Medical Policy, as the deputy head. It consists of five teams: the General Team (Health and Medical Policy Officer), Emergency Treatment Team (Public Health Policy Officer), Local Government Response Team (Director of Health Policy Bureau), External Cooperation Team (Director of Health Insurance Policy Bureau), and Communication and Public Relations Team (Spokesperson).

The emergency situation inspection team operates on a daily inspection system and aims to minimize confusion in medical settings and ensure that the public experiences no inconvenience in accessing medical services by ▲ monitoring whether disruptions in medical use occur ▲ checking the operation status of emergency treatment institutions (including public health centers) ▲ cooperating with related agencies such as local governments, the National Health Insurance Service, and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

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