[2025 Audit] Jung Eun-kyung: "Patient-Centered Healthcare Reform... Expansion of Regional, Essential, and Public Medical Services"

Measures to Improve Resident Training Environments
Strong Opposition from Medical Community over Medical Workforce Expansion

This year's National Assembly audit of the Ministry of Health and Welfare has focused on follow-up measures to normalize the medical field, including solutions to the gaps in regional and essential medical services that emerged after the recent conflict between the government and medical associations, as well as improvements to the training environment for medical residents.

Jung Eun-kyung, Minister of Health and Welfare, visited Gwangju, Jeonnam on August 6 to inspect the progress of the pilot project for integrated medical and nursing care, and to hear opinions from the field. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

At the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee audit on October 14, Minister of Health and Welfare Jung Eun-kyung stated, "We will pursue patient-centered healthcare reform that both the public and the medical community can agree on, and establish a sustainable healthcare system." She added, "We will foster national university hospitals as regional hub hospitals and expand regional, essential, and public healthcare."

Although most medical residents returned to their training sites last month, temporarily resolving the medical crisis, fundamental improvements to the working environment-such as long working hours and poor treatment of residents-have yet to be achieved. As a result, the audit is expected to focus on issues such as limiting residents' working hours, guaranteeing union activities, improving the educational environment, and adjusting the scope of work between residents and physician assistants (PAs). Han Sungjon, head of the emergency committee of the Korean Intern Resident Association, and Yoo Cheongjun, head of the National Union of Medical Residents, are scheduled to attend as witnesses.

Other topics for discussion include the government's key policy tasks: establishing public medical schools, introducing a regional doctor system, and expanding the workforce to address shortages in local healthcare. However, as the government's policy to strengthen regional, essential, and public healthcare implies a possible increase in medical school admissions, strong opposition from the medical community is expected, and both ruling and opposition parties are likely to focus their questions and debates on this issue.

Reform of the pharmacy system has also been identified as a major agenda item. With controversy growing over the recent spread of warehouse-style pharmacies, Kwon Younghee, president of the Korean Pharmaceutical Association, will attend as a witness. Debates are also ongoing regarding the institutionalization of public late-night pharmacies, the promotion of alternative dispensing, and the introduction of electronic prescriptions. In particular, the government is pushing to expand prescriptions by generic name as a national policy task to address unstable pharmaceutical supply, but conflicts between the medical and pharmaceutical sectors are intensifying.

In the field of social welfare, the audit will examine the preparations for the integrated care service set to begin in March next year, as well as policies supporting deinstitutionalization for people with disabilities, independence for young adults with borderline intellectual functioning, and support for young people preparing for self-sufficiency. Expanding welfare for vulnerable groups and ensuring transparency in fiscal execution are also key issues.