Health ministry to add 9 staff, including 7 for regional public hospitals

The health ministry said Tuesday it will add nine staff positions, seven of them to the office responsible for regional essential public health care, under a revision to its organizational rules that took effect the same day.

The regional essential public health office will gain seven posts: one at Grade 4 or Grade 5, two at Grade 5, three at Grade 6 and one at Grade 7.

The revision also adds two posts, one Grade 5 and one Grade 6, to the health industry policy bureau for artificial intelligence-based primary care.

A single Grade 6 post was added temporarily to the regional medical workforce training division, which is preparing the establishment of a national graduate school of medicine.

With the additions, the ministry's total authorized headcount rises to 911 from 902 under one schedule of positions, and to 914 from 905 under a second, an increase of nine in each case.

The revision also reallocates duties between the population and children's policy office and the population policy coordination division, and assigns new work supporting the Presidential Committee on Population Strategy. That change follows the full revision of the Framework Act on Low Birth Rate in an Aging Society into a Framework Act on Population Strategy.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare published the revision as Ministerial Ordinance No. 1205, with promulgation and effect both dated Oct. 27.