Provincial Governors Appeal for Medical Community to Engage More Flexibly in Dialogue with Government

Korea Association of Provincial Governors Issues Appeal

Sixteen provincial governors across the country urged the medical community to participate in dialogue with the government ahead of the Chuseok holiday, expressing concerns about public safety due to medical service gaps.

On the 8th, the Korea Association of Provincial Governors issued an appeal stating, "Chuseok is a time filled with the joy of families and neighbors coming together, but currently, our society is facing a difficult situation where the collective action of the medical community opposing the increase in medical school quotas threatens not only patients' lives but also the safety of the entire nation."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

They continued, "The shortage of essential medical personnel felt on the ground in provinces, the disparity in medical services between regions, and the resulting low birth rates and regional population outflow have reached a crisis level that can no longer be ignored."

They added, "Provincial governors have supported the government's policy to increase medical school quotas centered on regional flagship national universities and have appealed to professors to persuade medical students to return to classes," emphasizing, "We still firmly believe that increasing medical school quotas, especially in local universities, is absolutely necessary."

They stated, "To protect the lives and safety of the people, the direction and momentum of the medical reform, which has taken its first step this time, must not be lost, and the controversy over quota increases and the medical community's collective actions must be resolved promptly."

Furthermore, they noted, "Recently, both ruling and opposition parties in the political sphere have shared an understanding of the essence and basic direction of medical reform, as well as the necessity of strengthening essential and regional medical services through increasing medical school quotas, emphasizing dialogue and compromise between the government and the medical community," urging, "We ask the medical community to engage more flexibly in dialogue with the government to create solutions not only for the quota issue but also for normalizing the medical system."

The governors expressed gratitude to the medical staff protecting the medical frontlines and earnestly appealed, "We sincerely urge those who have left the field to return to medical sites this Chuseok so that the public no longer feels anxiety about their lives."

To the public, they appealed, "Please cooperate to prevent overburdening medical personnel," and "Unless it is an emergency, please yield medical facilities to those who truly need them."

All sixteen provincial governors nationwide, except for the Governor of Gyeonggi Province, signed this appeal.