Health ministry picks Namwon as site of state medical graduate school

The health ministry said Thursday that a state-run graduate medical school will be built in Namwon, North Jeolla Province, ending an eight-year search for a site and setting up a 2029 opening aimed at training doctors for public and essential care.

The decision was made at the fourth meeting of the preparatory committee for the National Medical Graduate School in Seoul, which endorsed a site beside Namwon Medical Center.

The school will be a four-year graduate-only institution, with admission open to university graduates and a target of 100 students a year. The government intends to select candidates mainly on their commitment to public medicine, cover tuition and other costs in full while they study, and manage their careers from enrollment through graduation.

In return, graduates must serve 15 years in administrative agencies handling policy or in public medical institutions doing clinical work, with the entire residency training period counted toward that obligation. They are to be placed across areas including public hospitals, fire and industrial accident services, veterans' care, infectious disease response, the National Trauma Center, health and pharmaceutical policy, and international health.

Teaching will center on Namwon, with clinical training spread across a range of public medical institutions. Namwon Medical Center will be converted into a state-operated hospital named National Medical Center Namwon Hospital and expanded in stages to about 500 beds, with specialties including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and dementia.

The legal basis for the project is the Act on the Establishment and Operation of the National Medical Graduate School, which passed the National Assembly in April and takes effect on Nov. 27.

The government first announced in April 2018 that it would establish a national public medical college linked to the National Medical Center in Namwon, to close regional gaps in care and fill shortages in essential and public medicine. In February, the Health and Medical Policy Deliberative Committee decided on the number of doctors to be trained in light of demand expected from 2030.

The infrastructure subcommittee judged the Namwon site on its fit with the project's purpose, the feasibility of meeting the opening timetable, the consistency and local acceptance of the policy, and room to expand and link with the community. It cited the site's proximity to Namwon Medical Center for community-based clinical training, and said most of the planned land is already secured, allowing a fast design and construction schedule, with legislative proposals and budget allocations following the designation.

"Namwon is the place that the government and the local government have prepared together for the establishment of the National Medical Graduate School since the decision to push ahead with the project in 2018," said Lee Hyung-hoon, vice health minister and chairman of the preparatory committee. "This decision keeps faith with the policy that has continued since then, and it is the result of confirming the educational conditions and the feasibility of the project through the subcommittee's close review."

He added that the ministry would work closely with North Jeolla Province, Namwon and the National Medical Center so that the school can open on schedule in 2029 and become a cradle for the public-medical workforce that the state has taken responsibility for training.