Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon holds an briefing on the coronavirus at City Hall on May 13, 2020, in this photo provided by the Seoul metropolitan government.
SEOUL, May 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government is pushing to establish a public school of medicine for the first time in the country.
The initiative is interpreted as Seoul’s move to preemptively respond to infectious diseases at a time when the importance of the public health system has increased due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon unveiled the idea at a regular COVID-19 briefing at City Hall Tuesday, saying the city will strengthen its ability to respond to infectious diseases and the public health care system to create a safer city.
Park said he would also consider establishing a public school of medicine jointly with other local governments.
In the U.S., Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho states have joined forces to establish WWAMI Regional Medical Education Program, which selects 10 prospective medical personnel from each state every year.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government suffered a setback in its bid to acquire a medical school in Namwon, North Jeolla Province, which was closed in 2018.
At that time, Seoul planned to invest 100 billion won (US$81.1 million) to establish a medical school under the University of Seoul, but failed to reach an agreement with related agencies.
“We will establish a quarantine management team that will be in charge of quarantine management at all times and establish an operation innovation center for municipal hospitals within the Seoul Health Foundation to strengthen the ability of public medical institutions to respond to disasters such as infectious diseases,” said Park.
He also stressed that four of the 12 municipal hospitals, including the Seoul Medical Center, will have specialized centers for infectious diseases, while the remaining eight hospitals will also strengthen their capabilities as institutions to treat infectious diseases.
The city will also deploy one doctor for infectious diseases in each district by the second half of the year, and increase the number of public medical personnel sequentially by adding 13 doctors for infectious diseases in municipal hospitals and respiratory medicine next year.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
