COVID-19 시대에 의료 공공성 강화의 법적 논의

Abstract

After the COVID-19 pandemic, patients are reluctant to visit hospitals due to the risk of infection even though they have to visit medical institutions for treatment or regular checkups, or medical institutions are minimizing the visits of guardians other than patients. Patients still want to receive high-quality medical services, but it is not easy, and medical institutions are experiencing management difficulties due to a sharp decline in patients. Public health is a concept different from the provision of individual medical services to patients, and it means universal health care services for a large number of people. In order to solve problems such as the concentration of patients in large medical institutions in large cities, the medical gap between medical institutions in large cities and local small and medium cities, and the refusal of competent medical personnel to work at medical institutions in small and medium cities in local cities, discussions have been conducted on the public nature of medical care and the vitalization of local medical institutions. did. In this process, training of young medical personnel, dispatching them to small and medium-sized cities in the provinces, and expansion of local medical institutions were also suggested as alternatives to strengthen the public nature of medical care. However, these measures had to have limitations in that they could not be effective in an early time due to time and cost problems. Alternatives such as telemedicine have been proposed, but they have not been implemented properly due to opposition from the medical community. This paper does not simply propose to introduce a certain system. We want to provide an opportunity for us to strengthen the public nature of medical care and ultimately overcome the current crisis, and to respond wisely even if we face a similar or completely new crisis in the future.