Gov't outlines plans to repurpose medical facilities

Munhwa Ilbo reported that, according to the government's report titled "Basic Plan for the Re-establishment of Medical Institutions and their Functions," there has been a growing interest in redefining the functions and roles of medical facilities into three categories: neighborhood clinics handling outpatients, hospitals taking inpatients, and larger hospitals focusing on patients suffering from serious aliments and cancer.

According to the basic plan released on the 17th regarding health and welfare, the current hospital system is set to change, with clinics focusing on regular illness, chronic diseases, and primary health care. Hospitals will develop specialty joint and burn units, and higher-grade general hospitals will focus care and research on patients in serious condition.

Yonhap News reports that this re-purposing would be beneficial to the Korean medical system's chronic disorder which suffers from a number of related problems such as the duplication of efforts by clinics, hospitals, and larger hospitals, causing supply and demand inefficiencies such as investment in the overstock of sickbeds and expensive medical equipment. The existing problems, in turn, cause financial aggravation and unnecessary strain on patients and resources. Patients and hospitals are already expressing disagreement with the proposed changes; therefore, the future success of these remedies remain to be seen.

Translated by Bret Chernoff

Milk Shortage Expected Due to Foot-and-Mouth Disease

According to Asia Economy, the government will be looking into importing dairy cows as milk production was affected due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

On 10 February, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced this measure to stabilize the milk supply, as they expected the production of raw milk to decrease. Money Today reported that the dairy industry responded positively to this measure as it would somewhat help to alleviate the situation.

Last year, 12% of dairy cows were culled after the foot-and-mouth outbreak in November, which adversely affected the production of milk. This raised concerns about public outbursts that may arise due to potential milk shortage. Furthermore, the school milk program will be starting in March, which would further compound the milk shortage problem.

It is anticipated that the production of raw milk this year would be roughly 2,340,000 tons short of last year's supply. The government plans to import about 1,260 tons of powdered milk from March to April, and is currently pushing for 9,000 tons of customs-free powdered milk to be introduced in the early half of this year.

In case the foot-and-mouth disease situation worsens, they are also considering to import dairy cows as a short-term solution.

Translated by Kaye Lam

Foot and Mouth disease spreading rapidly

The highly contagious Foot and Mouth disease is spreading rapidly across Korea. Officials at the Korean Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries announced that " FMD has broken out on pig farms in Munbaek-myeon, Jincheon-gun, Chungbuk, Sonyang-myeon, Yangyang-gun, Gwangwon-do, Baegam-myeon, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Anheung-myeon, Hoengseong-gun, Gangwon-do." According to DongA.com, the government has decided to vaccinate pigs for FMD, in addition to cattle, to help contain the spread of this highly contagious animal disease. The government has ordered the culling of over 770,000 animals, while 700,000 are slated to receive vaccinations. Yunhap News reports that the "FMD virus is known to infect almost 3,000 times faster in pigs than it does in cows. Therefore, if we fail to take preventive measure properly, the virus will spread quickly and uncontrollably." Yunhap News also reported that once the ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries starts to vaccinate the pigs, it will be in the areas where pig FMD has previously broken out and 8 areas where mother and breeding pigs are raised which include Anseong-si, Icheon-si, Yeoju-gun, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do, Boryeong-si, Hongseong-gun, Dangjin-gun, Seosan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, and 10 km radius area of Kyeongi and Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do area.