SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s medical community is escalating its confrontation with the Lee Jae-myung administration and the National Assembly over a set of health-care policy proposals that physicians argue threaten patient safety and undermine established medical standards. At the center of the dispute are three initiatives: mandatory ingredient-based prescriptions, stricter oversight of [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s efforts to rescue its collapsing essential medical system by sharply raising reimbursements for high-risk surgeries have failed to halt the sector’s decline, new government data show. Even with more generous payments, essential care still accounts for less than 20 percent of total medical spending, while pediatric and obstetric [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – As tensions between the medical community and the government continue to simmer, an increasing number of South Korean doctors are exploring opportunities abroad, signaling a potential brain drain in the nation’s healthcare sector. On October 19, a healthcare consulting company held an information session for Tokushukai Group, Japan’s largest medical [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Thursday strongly denounced a “blacklist” of emergency room doctors drawn up to name and shame those not participating in the walkout by junior doctors, vowing to take stern action against those responsible. The list contains personal information and malicious comments about emergency room physicians [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Senior doctors at three major hospitals affiliated with Korea University were set to begin reducing treatment of non-critical patients Friday, joining walkouts by two other major hospitals in support of striking junior doctors. The planned walkout by Korea University’s three hospitals — Anam Hospital, Guro Hosptial and Ansan Hospital [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Representatives of doctors and the government are expected to sit down for talks as early as this week, as both sides have hinted that they would hold negotiations to seek a breakthrough to end a monthslong standoff over the government’s medical reform. The move came as Lim Hyun-taek, a [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Major groups of doctors and medical professors will gather Wednesday to discuss what to do next against the government’s medical reform plan after threatening to launch an indefinite strike next week, officials said. On Tuesday, some community doctors and medical professors affiliated with the Korea Medical Association (KMA) held [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – The antitrust regulator launched an on-site inspection into a major lobby group for doctors Wednesday for allegedly forcing its members to join a walkout against the government’s medical reform plan, officials said. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) sent inspectors to the office of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) in [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Tuesday the government ordered community doctors who joined a one-day walkout to return to work, warning that they would face legal punishment unless they comply with the order. The order came as about 4 percent of the nation’s 36,371 community hospitals, excluding dental and [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Some community doctors were set to stage a one-day walkout Tuesday in protest of the government’s medical reform, amid growing anxiety among patients as medical professors of Seoul National University hospitals began an indefinite walkout. About 4 percent of the nation’s 36,371 community hospitals, excluding dental and Oriental medicine [...]