Health ministry to cut eight public bodies in elder care and bioethics merger

The health ministry said it will merge eight of its affiliated public bodies into larger organizations, creating new agencies for elder welfare and for bioethics and organ donation as part of a government-wide plan announced Sept. 3 to reform public institutions.

The number of organizations overseen by the Ministry of Health and Welfare will fall to 39 from 47.

The most prominent change brings together the Korea Labor Force Development Institute for the Aged, which runs job programs for older people, and the Funeral Culture Promotion Foundation, which operates funeral support centers, into a new body provisionally named the Korea Institute for Elder Welfare Development, which will also take on research and policy development covering the elderly. The ministry said the jobs agency was limited in addressing elder policy as a whole because it handled employment programs alone, while the funeral foundation had struggled to run nationwide projects given its small size.

A second new organization, provisionally called the National Institute for Life Sharing, will combine the Korea National Institute for Bioethics Policy, which supports the operation of the bioethics review committee and the life-sustaining treatment decision system, with the Korea Organ Donation Agency, which runs the organ and tissue donation network, and the Korea Public Tissue Bank, which collects, processes and distributes human tissue.

The Korea Health Industry Development Institute will absorb the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology in Cosmetics and the Foundation for Regenerative Medicine. The Osong and Daegu-Gyeongbuk advanced medical industry foundations will be combined into a provisional Korea Advanced Medical Industry Promotion Foundation, which the ministry said would resolve inefficiencies such as duplicated administrative costs from running each complex separately.

"Through this reform of public institutions under the health ministry, I expect we can generate synergies by integrating agencies that perform similar functions, strengthening each institution's expertise and expanding links between policies," said Kim Kuk-il, head of the ministry's planning and coordination office. Kim said the ministry will pursue the legal revisions needed to carry out the changes while continuing to communicate with relevant ministries, public institutions and labor unions on establishing each body's status and on the succession of employees' contracts and improvements to their treatment.