17 of 26 Public Health Physicians to Complete Service in April... Concerns Over Disruptions to Medical Care for Residents
Hapcheon-gun in South Gyeongsang Province announced on the 20th that it will activate an "emergency medical care system" to minimize medical service gaps caused by the large-scale completion of service by public health doctors (hereinafter referred to as public health physicians).
According to the county, among the 26 public health physicians currently working in the jurisdiction, 17 (about 65%), including those in medicine, dentistry, and Korean medicine, are scheduled to complete their service in April. This means that more than half of the local public healthcare workforce will leave at once, putting the county on the verge of a situation in which residents will face real inconvenience in receiving medical care.
In particular, because many public health physicians whose service is ending tend to use up their remaining annual leave at once, there is a high possibility that treatment gaps will occur sequentially from mid-February. As a result, there is a clear need for preemptive measures to minimize disruptions to the operation of public health institutions.
To prevent a medical service vacuum, the county has since the end of last year issued three rounds of recruitment notices for supervising physicians, both specialists and general practitioners, under exceptional conditions. However, hiring has been delayed, as the nationwide shortage of doctors and the widespread reluctance to work in provincial areas have overlapped.
Accordingly, until new public health physicians are assigned, the county has decided not to rely solely on hiring additional personnel to fill potential medical gaps, but instead to operate an emergency medical care system by efficiently reallocating all available medical resources.
First, the public health center will continue to provide regular daily medical services even during the emergency care period to maintain local residents' access to healthcare. Town and township health sub-centers will provide in-person treatment when a public health physician is on duty; however, if a public health physician is absent for five or more consecutive days, the county plans to operate a teleconsultation system twice a week in the mornings to minimize any gaps in care.
The emergency medical care system will remain in place until mid-April, when new public health physicians are assigned.
Separately from the activation of the emergency medical care system, Hapcheon-gun is continuing its efforts to recruit supervising physicians and is strongly urging South Gyeongsang Province and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to give priority to reallocating public health physicians to medically underserved areas, based on the medically underserved area index.
Ahn Myeonggi, head of the public health center, said, "As a medically underserved area, we have many concerns due to the completion of service by public health physicians and the reduction in the number of assigned personnel, but we are doing our utmost to minimize medical service gaps by making maximum use of available resources," and requested, "For the time being, please call the relevant sub-center in advance to confirm whether treatment is available before visiting."
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