Health ministry to add 9 staff as part of AI and regional care push

The Ministry of Health and Welfare's authorised headcount rises to 911 from 902 under the amendment to the decree governing its organisation and affiliated bodies. General-service positions account for most of the increase, climbing to 901 from 892, of which posts at Grade 3 or 4 and below rise to 868 from 859.

The largest share goes to the regional and essential public health care office, which gains seven posts — one at Grade 4 or 5, two at Grade 5, three at Grade 6 and one at Grade 7 — to strengthen the policy system for regional, essential and public health care.

The health industry policy bureau receives two additional posts, one each at Grade 5 and Grade 6, to pursue artificial intelligence-based basic medical care policy. A further Grade 6 post goes temporarily to the regional medical workforce training division, a time-limited unit created to prepare for the establishment of a national medical graduate school.

The decree also rewrites parts of the ministry's remit to reflect the full revision of the Framework Act on Low Birth Rate and Aging Society into the Framework Act on Population Strategy. References to low birth rate and aging society policy become population policy, a reference to low birth rate and aging is also changed to population policy, and one provision is deleted. New provisions make the ministry responsible for overall coordination of population policy and for supporting and cooperating with the Population Strategy Committee.