A recommendation has been made to shift the current medical system—centered on hospitals treating disease—toward preventing and managing illness in the community in line with a super-aged society. The core is to reorganize roles so that public health centers oversee regional health policy and neighborhood clinics handle prevention, chronic disease management, and even home-based care.
The Medical Innovation Committee, an advisory body under the prime minister, held its ninth meeting on the 27th at the Koreana Hotel in Seoul and reviewed 10 key recommendations to the government under four strategies, including strengthening the functions of regional health care systems, establishing primary care functions, and expanding community roles.
The main points of the recommendations are: ◇ strengthening public health centers' planning and coordination functions for regional health policy ◇ expanding the roles of healthy living support centers and branch public health centers ◇ reinforcing prevention and chronic disease management at neighborhood clinics ◇ creating a registration and management system for high-acuity patients ◇ strengthening national responsibility for primary care in medically underserved areas ◇ expanding home-based care ◇ supporting home deaths ◇ linking regional health, medical, and care information ◇ building an AI-based health management platform ◇ promoting pilot projects for innovation in regional health and primary care.
The biggest change is the expanded role of neighborhood clinics.
The idea is to strengthen primary care functions so neighborhood clinics can move beyond being places people visit only when they are sick and become "health management institutions" that continuously manage local residents' health.
In its recommendations, the committee said primary care should include managing chronic diseases and frailty, consolidating health, welfare, and care services, and providing in-home medical care, home-based care, and even home deaths.
A proposal also emerged to shift public health centers into "regional health control towers." The plan would reduce their role in directly providing treatment and services, manage overall health levels and health disparities among local residents, expand healthy living support centers in urban areas, and strengthen the functions of branch public health centers and public health subcenters in rural and fishing communities.
The key factors that will determine effectiveness are fees and financing. That is because prevention, health counseling, patient monitoring, and care linkages are difficult to adequately compensate under the current fee-for-service system.
The committee recommended separate compensation for regional health and primary care collaboration and an overhaul of the compensation system to reflect the functions and performance of primary care. It also proposed reallocating funds based on regional health needs and amending related laws.
This proposal is not finalized government policy but a set of recommendations prepared by a panel of experts, and legal revisions, health insurance fee adjustments, and securing additional funding will need to follow.
A Health Ministry official said, "As the government has discussed innovation plans with the committee so far, we will further flesh out and implement these recommendations," adding, "Since special accounts for regional essential health care will be created next year, we will draw heavily on the recommendations."
Jeong Ki-hyun, chair of the Innovation Committee, emphasized, "In a super-aged society, we must transform the medical system so that people can proactively look after their health close to where they live and continue receiving the medical and care services they need," and added, "We expect these recommendations to be a starting point for regional health and primary care to move beyond their respective silos and jointly take responsibility for residents' health."
Meanwhile, the committee plans to hold a second public deliberative forum on Nov. 7–8 with about 300 citizen panelists to gather public opinion on the theme of "improving the life-sustaining treatment decision system."