If you reduce your service to 24 months in public health, 94.7% apply for medical students...Five suggestions for continuing the press release of the Institute for Medical Policy
May 20, 2025
|
The public health doctor system has been introduced and implemented as a policy measure to address vulnerable medical areas and respond to health crises, but the sustainability of the system has been threatened by the recent decline in public health doctors' manpower, heavy work, and lack of deployment standards.
In particular, the recent trend of decreasing support for new public health doctors is intensifying due to complex factors such as poor working conditions and treatment and increased preference for active military service, and as a result, the vicious cycle of overloading the work of existing public health doctors continues.
In this study, quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to prepare measures to improve the sustainability of the public health doctor system and the use of manpower, the researcher explained.
An online survey was conducted on 320 public health doctors and 2,469 medical students nationwide in a quantitative way, and a group in-depth interview (FGI) was conducted on five public health doctors belonging to the central operating board of the Korean Council of Public Health Doctors in a qualitative way.
According to a survey of public health doctors, 75.6% of the respondents said that the increase in public health doctors is effective in reducing the burden of work, and the main improvement measures include an increase in salary and allowance (98.4%), a reduction in service period (97.2%), and easing legal responsibility (95.6%). In particular, 67.2% hoped to shorten the service period to 12 to 18 months.
57.8% of public health doctors evaluated the feasibility of the deployment negatively, and the main reasons were insufficient medical tools and equipment, inadequacy of manpower, and lack of relations with surrounding private medical institutions.
89.1% of respondents agreed on the need to change the role of public health doctors, 89.7% of them said they should only be in charge of primary care, and 78.1% said they should only be in charge of health care. In addition, 69.4% of the respondents wished to separate medical care and health care projects. As for the placement, 69.4% said that 'medical vulnerable areas priority placement' was necessary, and the higher the feasibility of placement, the higher the job satisfaction.
Various policy measures were proposed for the expansion of essential medical care in the region, including the establishment of a transfer-oriented medical delivery system, expansion of private medical institutions, strengthening public medical support, and utilizing retirement doctors.
As a result of in-depth interviews with public health doctors, differences in medical environments by workplace have a significant impact on work adequacy, and opinions were suggested that the introduction of public health doctors dedicated to health projects, legal and institutional improvements to revitalize telemedicine, improvement of treatment of the overall service environment, and strengthening education are needed to redefine roles. In particular, it was found that shortening the service period (24 to 26 months) is the most effective way to increase the application rate.
According to a survey of medical students on public health doctors' service, military doctors and public health doctors had the highest level of military service at 29.5%, and 83.4% of them said they would apply as active-duty soldiers if they maintained their military service for a long time. Long service (97.9%) was the highest reason for avoiding military doctors and public information, and when the service period was reduced from 36 months to 24 months, the rate of hope for public health doctors increased significantly from 8.1% to 94.7%, confirming that shortening the service period is a key factor in increasing the application rate.
Based on the results of this study, the researchers made five policy suggestions to ensure the efficient use of public health doctors and the long-term sustainability of the system.
First, it is necessary to shorten the service period for public health doctors. The researchers argued that the current 36-month service period should be adjusted to 24 months to increase the application rate for medical officer candidates and increase the stability of securing manpower.
Second, it is to improve the system and strengthen legal protection. It is explained that it is necessary to increase public health doctors' job satisfaction and trust in the system by realizing salaries and allowances, easing the legal responsibility burden, and improving the working environment.
Third, reorganization of deployment standards and establishment of a central management system. The researchers emphasized that the Ministry of Health and Welfare should establish a Public Health Physician Arrangement Appropriateness Committee and ensure efficient allocation of medical resources and equity between regions by coordinating roles with private medical institutions.
Fourth, strengthening regional medical linkage programs. The researchers explained that it is necessary to abuse opportunities to collaborate with local public medical institutions while serving and introduce a career recognition and incentive system to link employment in local medical institutions after discharge.
Finally, job diversification and specialization support. The researchers suggested that systematic education and institutional foundations should be established to expand the role of public health doctors to various public health fields such as infectious disease response, chronic disease management, and health promotion projects.
|
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
