The Ministry of Health and Welfare has turned more positive toward establishing “public medical schools” – one of President Lee Jae-myung’s campaign pledges – saying it would reexamine all related issues from the ground up.

An official from the ministry’s Public Health Division expressed such a position at a meeting with journalists on Wednesday.

During his election campaign, President Lee said he would establish public medical schools in Incheon, South, and North Jeolla provinces, as well as a medical school in North Gyeongsang Province, and help the southeastern province attract a tertiary hospital.

The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK)'s 10 major policy agenda for the presidential election also included the creation of regional medical schools and public medical academies.

“The last time the government pushed for a public medical school was from 2018 to 2020. However, after the Covid-19 outbreak, we canceled the discussion, deciding to ‘discuss it again from the ground up,’” the official said. “Still, since it was an issue of interest to the DPK, the National Assembly continued to ask questions about it, and the Health and Welfare Ministry expressed reservations.”

(Although the establishment of a public medical school is one of the Lee Myung-bak administration's promises), nothing has been finalized yet. The official noted that there have been discussions in the past, but the situation is different now.

The official said the ministry is reviewing the matter from the ground up because it is also related to increasing the medical school enrollment quota.

“In the past, there were discussions about establishing a public medical school without expanding the number of medical school students, but the situation is different now,” he said. “We have yet to make guidelines (for establishing a public medical school), so we are making basic preparations by, for instance, revisiting past discussions and overseas cases.”

The official also discussed the decisions that must be made once the discussion about establishing a public medical school begins in earnest.

“In previous discussions, it was suggested that the public medical school be a four-year program like a graduate medical school, but at this point, it is also possible to establish a six-year public medical school like a general medical school,” he said. "This would require a large budget and interagency consultation. We must also discuss the number of professors and training hospitals."

He added that it should be understood as a blank slate, starting from the basics, such as how to utilize the human resources produced through public medical schools.

The latest bill to establish a public medical school is the “Act on Establishment and Operation of Public Health Medical University,” introduced by Rep. Park Hee-seung, a DPK lawmaker.

The bill seeks to establish a public health medical school as a graduate medical school to train public doctors. The main content of the bill is that the central and local governments will support the expenses necessary to train doctors to serve in public, essential, and community healthcare and fulfill their mandatory service in medical institutions in medically vulnerable areas.

Notably, the bill includes a provision to revoke the medical licenses of doctors who graduate from public medical schools if they fail to fulfill their mandatory service.

The renewed discussion has raised expectations among local governments, which have been pushing for the establishment of medical schools since President Lee Jae-myung took office. South and North Jeolla and North Gyeongsang provinces are actively promoting the establishment of medical schools in their regions.