National Graduate School of Medicine confirmed to be established in Namwon, Jeollabuk-do... Target for opening school in 2029

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Go Yoo-seon = It has been confirmed that the National Graduate School of Medicine (National Medical Center), which the government has been promoting to establish in order to expand the base of local, essential, and public medical care, will be opened in Namwon, Jeollabuk-do.

The government plans to open the school in 2029 and begin training for 100 new students the following year, but as plans to conduct clinical training at places such as the National Medical Center in Seoul are being considered, opposition from the local community concerned about 'education-training dualization' continues.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare held the 4th meeting of the National Medical Graduate School Establishment Preparation Committee at the Seoul Government Complex on the 1st to deliberate and decide on the results of the suitability review, and decided that the location of the National Medical Graduate School would be Namwon-si, Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province.

The Infrastructure Expert Committee under the Establishment Preparation Committee reviewed criteria such as the purpose of establishment, the possibility of opening a school at the target time, and the consistency and acceptability of policies. As a result, it was evaluated that the site secured by Jeonbuk Province is adjacent to Namwon Medical Center, is advantageous for community-based education and practice, and is in line with the purpose of nurturing public medical personnel.

Accordingly, the location of the National Medical Center was confirmed to be Namwon, eight years after the government decided to establish a 'public medical college' using the school's medical school capacity (49 students) immediately after the closure of Seonam University in 2018.

In accordance with the National Medical Center Act, the National Medical Center is established as a four-year graduate school with only a graduate school to train public health and medical personnel and provide education and research in the public medical field.

The goal is to open the school in 2029 and start the curriculum in 2030.

In order to foster talented individuals with a sense of responsibility for public healthcare, we will establish a selection system focusing on college graduates with diverse experiences, and provide support for tuition and dormitory fees while enrolled.

The admission quota is set at 100 in accordance with the scale of doctor manpower training decided by the Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee early this year, and the students will be trained and placed in various areas such as public medical centers, firefighting, industrial accidents, veterans affairs, infectious disease response, national trauma center, health and medicine policy, and international health.

Graduates are required to serve 15 years in administrative agencies (policy), public medical institutions (clinical), etc.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare emphasized that this decision maintains the consistency and trust of government policy because Namwon has been making preparations for establishment, including the purchase of land, and announced that the curriculum will be centered around Namwon.

However, it was announced that clinical training will be carried out 'at various public medical institutions' in line with the purpose of training public medical personnel, and that specific details will be confirmed through discussions with the curriculum expert committee in the future.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare has been considering a plan to conduct the National Medical Center's curriculum in Namwon, but conduct clinical training at the National Medical Center in Seoul to provide experience in various cases, including serious and rare diseases.

However, Jeonbuk is opposing it, saying that if education and training functions are divided between the region and Seoul, the purpose of establishing the National Medical Center, which is to strengthen the public medical infrastructure, may be damaged.

Meanwhile, according to this decision, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to convert Namwon Medical Center into 'National Medical Center Namwon Hospital', a state-run hospital, expand its capacity to about 500 beds, and strengthen its function as a local and public medical clinical education and regional base hospital.

Lee Hyeong-hoon, Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, said, "Namwon is a place where the government and local governments have been preparing to establish a national medical center together since the decision to promote its establishment in 2018. We will work closely with related organizations such as Jeonbuk Province, Namwon City, and the National Medical Center so that the National Medical Center can open without a hitch in 2029 and become a cradle of public medical talent."