Yoo Kyung-ha, chairperson of the Daehan Hospital Association, said on the 23rd that national support for essential medical care must be further strengthened and noted plans to push for a "medical accident safety net" and a "state-responsibility resident training system."
The Daehan Hospital Association is a representative medical group whose members include tertiary general hospitals, general hospitals, hospitals, and long-term care hospitals.
At an inaugural press briefing held on the 23rd at the Daehan Hospital Association Hall in Mapo District, Seoul, Chairperson Yoo said, "Hospitals responsible for essential medical care cannot endure on a sense of duty alone," adding, "The state and society must properly value that role and provide sufficient and swift support."
Yoo, who serves as vice president for medical affairs and head of the medical center at Ewha Womans University, took office in May as the 43rd chairperson of the Daehan Hospital Association. She is the first woman to lead the association since its founding in 1959.
Referring to obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency care, and critical care, Yoo said, "With the current fee schedule and staffing alone, it is difficult to ensure sustainability," and added, "Essential medical care should be approached as national infrastructure."
Yoo also said she will push to establish a medical accident compensation mutual aid association to respond to the mandatory subscription to liability insurance for medical accident damages.
She said, "Protecting patients and ensuring a stable treatment environment for medical institutions are goals that must be pursued together," adding, "We will create a safety net suited to medical realities so hospitals can focus on care without bearing excessive burdens from medical disputes and unexpected incidents."
However, on the specifics of operating the mutual aid association, she explained, "We are at the stage of reviewing business feasibility and financial conditions," and added, "We plan to examine, through a research project, the scope of roles it can take on."
Overhauling the resident training system was also presented as a key task. The Daehan Hospital Association plans to expand and reorganize the Training Environment Evaluation Headquarters and newly establish a Training Evaluation Bureau and a Training Affairs Bureau to strengthen functions for improving resident education and the training environment.
Yoo said, "Residents are the future of health care in Korea," adding, "Training specialists is an area for which the state must take responsibility." She continued, "Residents have the characteristics of being both workers and trainees," and emphasized, "A government-led training system and improvements to the training environment are needed."
On the day, Kim Woo-kyung, first policy chairperson of the Daehan Hospital Association (president of Gachon University Gil Medical Center), argued that the concept of essential medical care should be redefined.
Chairperson Kim said, "The definition of essential medical care is still ambiguous," adding, "It should be defined based on actual medical procedures rather than by department." He explained, "Rather than designating all of neurosurgery or obstetrics and gynecology as essential medical care, we should approach it using procedures directly tied to people's lives—such as emergency craniotomy, emergency cesarean section, ECMO, and major trauma surgery—as the standard."
He also emphasized, "Current discussions on essential medical care tend to focus only on preventing death," adding, "Medical procedures that prevent severe disabilities—such as paralysis, blindness, spinal cord injury, brain injury, and organ failure—should also be included in essential medical care that the state must protect."
Yoo In-sang, first insurance chairperson of the Daehan Hospital Association (chairperson of the Korea Small and Medium Hospital Association), also argued that greater national support is needed to secure funding for essential medical care.
Chairperson Yoo said, "It is difficult to solve all problems with health insurance finances alone," adding, "To maintain essential and community medical care, it is necessary to expand national fiscal support beyond health insurance."
The Daehan Hospital Association will also work to strengthen cooperation among hospitals. Yoo said, "Tertiary general hospitals, community hospitals, small and medium hospitals, and specialty hospitals are not in a competitive relationship but partners sharing the common goal of public health," adding, "Through a chairperson-direct cooperative growth committee, we will expand communication focused on local field settings."
She said, "A health care system in which only tertiary general hospitals survive is not desirable," adding, "We will draw up ways to secure sustainability as each medical institution performs roles suited to its functions." The Daehan Hospital Association also plans to promote policy development and projects in artificial intelligence (AI) and Digital Healthcare, centered on the Digital Information Innovation Committee and the AI Strategy Affairs Bureau.