Gov't to invest $2.5 billion in critical patient treatment over five years

The government plans to invest 3.3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) annually into improving the treatment of critically ill patients at tertiary hospitals over the next five years.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, center, speaks at a meeting at the Central Government Complex in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]

The government plans to invest 3.3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) annually into improving the treatment of critically ill patients at tertiary hospitals over the next five years, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min announced Friday.

Speaking at a meeting to address the protracted strike by junior doctors, Lee said the government plans to draw money from public health insurance payments to fund reforms at tertiary hospitals, prioritizing advanced and intensive treatments for critically ill patients and those suffering from rare diseases.

Through the plan, the government hopes to raise the proportion of beds at tertiary hospitals that are taken by critically ill patients to 70 percent from the current 50 percent.

The minister said the work force structure at top-tier general hospitals “will be reorganized to support medical specialists and physician assistant nurses,” adding that hospital beds for patients with less urgent conditions will be reduced by 5 to 15 percent.

The minister said that a total of 20 trillion won will be spent over the next five years to carry out the reforms.

Earlier in the month, the Education Ministry announced that the government plans to invest an additional 5 trillion won ($3.7 billion) in medical schools over six years to help them cope with the planned hike in annual admissions.

The plans to revamp medical education and operations at major hospitals came after professional doctors’ associations criticized the government for failing to consider the teaching capacity of medical schools and poor conditions in critical sectors before deciding to increase the annual intake of medical schools nationwide by 1,509 spots.

The planned admissions hike triggered a walkout by some 10,000 junior doctors from hospitals nationwide in February, which is still ongoing.

In comments that appeared aimed at critics of the recruitment hike, Lee warned that “it will be difficult to secure the medical work force necessary to normalize essential and regional medical services” if the number of doctors does not increase.

Although the government and both of Korea’s major political parties have urged representatives from doctors’ groups to engage in dialogue to end the junior doctors’ strike, the Korean Medical Association — the country’s largest doctors’ lobbying group — has said that it will join such talks only if the government first withdraws its plan to hike medical recruitment next year.

The prolonged strike has strained the country’s health care system, with the number of surgeries across six major cancer categories plunging by nearly 17 percent since the walkout started.

The six leading cancers in Korea are gastric, colorectal, liver, breast, cervical and lung cancer.

According to public health insurance data, tertiary hospitals conducted 38,383 surgeries on patients with one of the six diseases from February to July, or 16.8 percent fewer than the number performed over the same period of the previous year.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]