KMA: Government's 'Telemedicine Center' Is a Shortcut and the Height of Irresponsibility

Opposition to Government Measures Addressing Medical Service Gaps

The government mentioned the operation of a center for non-face-to-face medical consultations as one of the countermeasures against the medical community's collective strike, prompting medical associations to react, calling it "the height of irresponsibility that misleads the public through loopholes."

The Korea Medical Association (KMA) issued a press release on the 10th stating, "We express serious regret over the government's mention of expanding non-face-to-face medical consultations as a measure to address the anticipated medical service gap caused by the medical community's general strike, and we urge an immediate withdrawal of this plan."

On the same day, Jeon Byeong-wang, Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters briefing on doctors' collective action, "If private practitioners engage in illegal collective actions, we are preparing measures such as operating a center to enable more systematic non-face-to-face medical consultations to fill the gap."

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the center will play a role in ensuring smooth medical consultations by guiding users in regions where medical services are difficult to access due to the strike to institutions in other regions where they can receive non-face-to-face consultations via phone or online.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Non-face-to-face medical consultations were temporarily permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic and later operated as a pilot project mainly for clinic-level medical institutions and returning patients. However, following the departure of residents, it was temporarily fully permitted starting in February.

On this day, the KMA criticized, "There is a high risk that the non-face-to-face consultation center will operate as an institution solely responsible for non-face-to-face consultations, and if consultations rely solely on patients' explanations via phone, etc., it could be used for the purpose of prescribing medication, thereby undermining the medical system."

They also stated, "Non-face-to-face consultations implemented as a pilot project lack clear legal grounds," and added, "If the government is so confident in the safety and effectiveness of non-face-to-face consultations, it should declare that it will also allow non-face-to-face consultations for childbirth, surgery, and emergency patients."

The KMA criticized the government's remarks as "the height of irresponsibility that abandons medical normalization and misleads the public through loopholes," urging, "Let us reconsider the institutionalization of non-face-to-face consultations from the ground up through thorough verification of safety and effectiveness."