Changwon Special City, "Medical School and Affiliated Hospital Must Be Established Within the Jurisdiction"

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam is making an all-out effort to establish a medical school to resolve regional medical imbalances and address the shortage of medical personnel.

Scene from the 1st meeting of the Changwon Medical School Attraction Planning Team.

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With the government recently expressing its intention to continue reviewing the establishment of regional medical schools, the city plans to concentrate all its capabilities and persuade the government to ensure the establishment of a medical school in Changwon.

Through the establishment of the Changwon College of Medicine, the city aims to train local medical personnel to eliminate medical disparities, foster future new industries linked to the medical and bio industries, encourage local talents to settle in Changwon, and attract outstanding external talents to the city.

Gyeongsangnam-do, where Changwon is located, is currently facing significant difficulties in securing medical personnel in essential and public medical fields due to the concentration of the medical sector in the metropolitan area and the skewing of medical specialties. Gyeongnam ranks lowest nationwide in medical school quotas per 100,000 population, and the number of doctors relative to the population is far below the national average.

To fundamentally resolve regional medical disparities and inequalities in medical services, the entire process of selecting, educating, and deploying doctors needed in the region must be completed within the region itself.

An analysis of the working locations in 2020 of specialists who obtained their qualifications in 2017 shows that when graduating from and training at non-metropolitan medical schools, 82% remain in non-metropolitan areas. According to a report by the Korean Medical Association Medical Policy Research Institute, the choice of doctors’ working locations is highly likely to be in the same region as their hometown, medical school graduation area, and specialist training area.

Ultimately, to strengthen regional and essential medical bases, it is urgent to establish medical schools in regions without them so that students graduate and complete their training locally and settle there.

Jo Myung-rae, Second Vice Mayor and General Director of the Changwon Medical School Attraction Planning Team, said, “A medical school must be established in Changwon, a prepared city with a population of one million and 30 years of aspiration, to complete a regionally self-sufficient medical system.” He added, “By nurturing excellent medical personnel who will lead the medical, bio, and advanced medical innovation industries, we can create a healthy city where citizens live well based on a high-level medical environment.”

The city plans to deliver a petition containing signatures from 740,000 people along with the petition documents to the Presidential Office, National Assembly, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Ministry of Education on the 6th and 7th of this month.

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