Jeonnam Province Deploys 259 New Public Health Doctors

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Jeonnam Province deployed 259 new public health doctors engaged in public health duties in medically underserved areas such as rural fishing villages on the 14th.

The newly assigned public health doctors were exempted from military training this year as well, considering the quarantine situation due to the spread of Omicron. They will work in city and county offices and local medical centers to perform quarantine duties such as patient treatment and COVID-19 home care management.

Due to the introduction of medical graduate schools, an increase in military service completers and female students, and the Ministry of National Defense securing military medical officers, the number of newly enrolled public health doctors nationwide has decreased. In Jeonnam, the number of new medical doctors decreased by 24, Korean medicine doctors by 3, and dentists increased by 2 compared to last year, resulting in a total reduction of 25 personnel.

Accordingly, Jeonnam Province recognizes the seriousness of the decreasing trend in newly enrolled public health doctors over the past three years and plans to propose changes to the central government’s deployment criteria to favor medically underserved areas like Jeonnam. They also plan to devise solutions such as integrating and operating health institutions with low resident usage rates.

Currently, public health doctors are assigned to 277 health institutions in the province, with 551 personnel accounting for 90% of the total (259 medical doctors, 104 dentists, and 188 Korean medicine doctors). Fourteen medical doctors are working at three local medical centers, eight personnel (4 medical doctors, 2 dentists, 2 Korean medicine doctors) are assigned to public medical policy institutions such as hospital ships and epidemiological investigators, and 13 Korean medicine doctors are working at 13 public nursing hospitals.

Additionally, 26 personnel are assigned to regional emergency medical institutions to promptly respond to emergency patient care.

An official from the province stated, “Jeonnam has the lowest COVID-19 fatality rate and the highest vaccination rate thanks to the dedicated efforts of public health doctors on the front lines of quarantine.” He added, “Since Jeonnam has many medically underserved areas, the role of public health doctors is very important, and we ask them to provide warm medical care to the residents based on their accumulated experience.”