Measures to fill medical void

In order to address the continued medical vacuum, South Korean government has decided to inject over 141 million USD from the National Health Insurance Funds. The additional funds will be used to help hospitals treating severely ill hospitalized patients and doctors treating emergency and seriously ill patients.

Labor costs at public hospitals will be provided from the local governments’ disaster management funds. Since South Korean government has laid down health reform policy on increasing medical school admissions by 65 percent, as of Wednesday, the number of trainee doctors who had given up on their contracts or walked off the job surpassed 11,000.

As preparedness, the government has issued guidelines that nurses can substitute for trainee doctors and allowed to perform CPR and administer medications to emergency patients. Advanced practice nurses and physician assistants are permitted to suture operated parts.