Mokpo City Actively Pursues Hosting a Medical School

Launching a Safety Campaign for Lunar New Year Holiday Travelers

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Mokpo City in Jeollanam-do conducted a campaign to attract a medical school targeting returning home visitors during the Lunar New Year, a traditional national holiday.

According to the city on the 25th, this campaign showed a united front among Mokpo City, Jeollanam-do, Jeollanam-do Council, Mokpo City Council, and Mokpo National University to attract a medical school, a long-cherished project of local residents for 30 years.

Mayor Park Hong-ryul is distributing the Widaeyuchi pamphlets to returning visitors.
[Photo by Mokpo City]

Jeollanam-do is the only one among the 16 metropolitan cities and provinces without a medical school, and it is a region where about 42% of the nation's inhabited islands are concentrated. Although the proportion of the elderly population is continuously increasing, the medical infrastructure is poor, and there is a shortage of medical personnel.

As a result, patients have to endure the inconvenience of traveling as close as Gwangju and as far as Seoul with their ailments.

Mayor Park Hong-ryul said, “I hope that the regional imbalance in medical services caused by the shortage of doctors and the concentration in the metropolitan area will be resolved, and that essential medical services can be guaranteed anytime and anywhere.”

Meanwhile, Mokpo City has been making efforts to attract a medical school, including securing a site for the medical school for the past 15 years, and the establishment of Mokpo National University Medical School was proven economically feasible in the Ministry of Education’s feasibility study conducted in 2019.