SEOUL, Dec. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — A senior presidential official said Tuesday that a now-disbanded consultative body on a prolonged walkout by trainee doctors could be reopened, but urged relevant parties to make more efforts to resolve the medical impasse. Jang Sang-yoon, senior presidential secretary for social policy, made the remark during a radio interview [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – In a significant shift for South Korea’s healthcare system, 42 of the nation’s 47 tertiary hospitals have agreed to participate in a government initiative aimed at restructuring their services to focus on severe illnesses and emergency care. The program represents a key component of the government’s healthcare reform agenda, which [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Thursday that the government is ready for talks with doctors if they propose a debate on medical reform. Cho made the remarks after a debate between the government and medical professors at Seoul National University (SNU) last week, focusing on the medical reform aimed [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Seven months after the South Korean government launched a pilot program to clarify nurses’ responsibilities, about 30% of nurses still report feeling anxious due to ambiguous job scopes, according to a recent survey. Representative Kang Sun-woo of the Democratic Party of Korea revealed these findings on October 9, based on [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Korea Bizwire) – Public medical institutions in South Korea are grappling with an increasingly severe shortage of doctors, a chronic issue that has pushed salaries to unprecedented levels. In a striking example last year, a public medical center in South Jeolla Province hired an orthopedic surgeon for an annual salary of 620 million [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The government plans to invest 3.3 trillion won (US$2.5 billion) of its health insurance funding annually over the next five years to reform tertiary care hospitals to better prioritize the treatment of critically ill patients, the interior minister said Friday. Minister Lee Sang-min made the remarks during a government [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – As the South Korean government moves to address medical shortages by allowing foreign-licensed doctors to practice, new data reveals that only 54.5% of foreign medical school graduates passed a key qualifying exam, raising concerns about the quality of care such a policy might introduce. The preliminary examination for medical licenses, [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – In a recent evaluation of the world’s best cancer hospitals, three South Korean medical institutions have secured positions within the top 10, marking a significant achievement for the country’s healthcare system. According to Newsweek’s “World’s Best Specialized Hospitals” rankings released on September 18, Samsung Medical Center, Asan Medical Center, and [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — The difficulty that hospitals face in operating emergency rooms has long been a serious issue in South Korea, the health ministry said Thursday, adding that it is a major reason for the government to push for medical reform that includes the increase in the medical school admission quota. Concerns [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of requests from emergency rescue workers to find hospitals for patients has more than doubled this year compared to last year, amid prolonged emergency room disruptions nationwide, the fire agency said Wednesday. 119 emergency control centers nationwide selected hospitals to accommodate emergency patients on 1,197 occasions from [...]