Current status and new policy direction of healthcare personnel in Korea

Chun-Bae Kim; Pan Suk Kim

doi:10.5124/jkma.2012.55.10.940

J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 55(10); 2012 > Article

Kim and Kim: Current status and new policy direction of healthcare personnel in Korea

Focused Issue of This Month

The Current Status and Directions of Healthcare Policy in Korea

Journal of the Korean Medical Association

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2012; 55(10): 940-949.

Published online: October 17, 2012

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2012.55.10.940

Current status and new policy direction of healthcare personnel in Korea

Chun-Bae Kim, MD^1,², Pan Suk Kim, PhD²

¹Department of Preventive Medicine, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, Korea.

²Institute for Poverty Alleviation and International Development, Yonsei University, Wonju, Korea.

Corresponding author: Chun-Bae Kim, kimcb@yonsei.ac.kr

Received September 20, 2012 Accepted September 30, 2012

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The health insurance financial crisis and the aging population have overshadowed the South Korean healthcare market. Reforming healthcare has become a major policy issue in the upcoming presidential election on December 19, 2012. It is hard to imagine a time when expectations have been higher and the challenges have been greater for the next administration to create a sustainable healthcare system. Among healthcare policy problems, the new administration must keep in mind reforms for healthcare personnel. Accordingly, several intermediate and long-term actions and initiations for healthcare personnel can help lay the groundwork for sustainable development of Korea's healthcare system. Possible examples include balancing the supply plan of physicians and nurses according to the finances of the National Health Insurance, controlling the number of dentists, oriental medical doctors, and pharmacists, while enhancing health education specialists, and complementary and alternative medical therapists.

Healthcare personnel; Healthcare policy; Sustainable development

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2010-413-B00024).

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Figure 1

The number of practising physicians per 1,000 inhabitants (From Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD factbook 2011-2012: economic, environmental and social statistics [Internet]. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2011) [2].

Figure 2

Distribution of physicians as a percentage of total physicians (2009 or latest available year) (From Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD factbook 2011-2012: economic, environmental and social statistics [Internet]. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2011) [2].

Figure 3

The number of practising nurses per 1,000 inhabitants (From Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD factbook 2011-2012: economic, environmental and social statistics [Internet]. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2011) [2].

Figure 4

Ratio of nurses to physicians (2009 or latest available year) (From Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD factbook 2011-2012: economic, environmental and social statistics [Internet]. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2011) [2].

Table 1

Classification of healthcare personnel according to laws in Korea

Table 2

Current status and trend of healthcare personnel in Korea

Values are presented as number or %.

From Ministry of Health and Welfare. Ministry of Health and Welfare year book 2011. Seoul: Ministry of Health and Welfare; 2012 [3].

^a)Licensed physicians (dentists and oriental medical doctors) = physicians (dentists and oriental medical doctors) + conditionally qualified limited physicians (dentists and oriental medical doctors).

Table 3

Increasing trend of practicing physicians per 1,000 population (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 2009/2012 report)

^a)Countries are ranked highest to lowest number in 2007.

^b)Be approximated the period which the number of practicing physicians per 1,000 population within 1960 to 2010 have increased twice.

^c)2009/^d)2011 available year, ( ) estimate according to Figure 1.

From Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD factbook 2011-2012: economic, environmental and social statistics [Internet]. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2011 [2].

Table 4

Trend of the apply rate of intern and resident by specialty

Values are presented as %.

From Healthcare Future Commission, Ministry of Health and Welfare; Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. 2020 Vision and policy initiative of healthcare in Korea: Healthcare Future Commission action report. Seoul: Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs; 2011 [9].