IANS | 03 Apr, 2024
The South Korean government on Wednesday allowed community health
centres to provide remote clinical services via video or phone
appointments, amid disruptions to public health services at major
hospitals for more than six weeks due to a mass walkout by junior
doctors, a senior official said.
Telemedicine services have been
extended to all hospitals since February 23 to cope with the doctors'
labour action, but community health centres were excluded, Yonhap news
agency reported.
"From today, contact-free treatment institutions
are expanded to public health centres and their branch offices," Second
Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters.
There are 246 public health centres and 1,341 branch offices in South Korea, Park said.
About
12,000 trainee doctors have been on strike in the form of mass
resignations since February 20, with medical professors having submitted
resignations in support of the walkout.
Medical professors, who
are senior doctors at major hospitals, also began cutting their working
hours on Monday to cope with growing fatigue caused by the protracted
walkout by junior doctors.
To cope with the hike in the number of
medical students, the government also plans to increase the number of
medical professors by 1,000, the report said.
Universities are
advised to submit their opinions to the government by next Monday on how
many more professors will be needed, Park said.
