"Systematic and Unified Management System for Medical Licenses Must Be Established"
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The Korean Medical Association is promoting the establishment of the Korean Medical License Management Institute (tentative name) for the systematic and efficient management of medical licenses. In South Korea, although the government issues medical licenses, their maintenance and management are separately operated by public and private sectors at each stage such as licensing exams, registration, and issuance, leading to a lack of expertise in the management system.
On the 20th, Choi Dae-jip, president of the Korean Medical Association, held a press conference at the association's temporary office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, stating, “A systematic and unified independent management system for medical licenses must be established.” He explained that this would enable real-time analysis of the current status of medical personnel, improvement of medical policies based on this data, predictability of medical workforce supply and demand, and suggest a balanced direction for medical workforce supply.
To this end, the association has formed a task force since 2019 to establish a medical license management organization and has been promoting implementation strategies, including drafting a related Medical Service Act amendment through a preparatory committee last year.
President Choi emphasized, “South Korea has been relying on the resources and sacrifices of medical personnel due to supply and demand issues for decades. Although the supply and demand of medical personnel is a fundamental matter for public medical services, the government has not been sharing basic data on effective medical personnel status and distribution with the Korean Medical Association, the central organization of medical professionals.”
He added, “The association has laid the groundwork for self-regulation through the operation of the ‘Central Ethics Committee’ based on the Medical Service Act. While strengthening self-regulation to emphasize doctors’ ethics and professionalism, we have also come to realize the absence and necessity of improvement in the medical license management system.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
