[KS] RE: Doctor's Strike

Gil Soo Han gil.han at med.monash.edu.au
Thu Aug 17 21:23:08 EDT 2000


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Dear list,

I wish Korean government and relevant health professional bodies tackled
this matter of 'separating medicine from pharmacy' before global economic
effect has imposed on them both indirectly and directly. One may argue that
Korea was not ready for the reform a decade ago. Well, that may be another
matter for discussion.

There is a broad agreement on the principle of 'separating medicine from
pharmacy'. It is probably good for the sake of patients. Doctors' concern of
losing part of their income is certainly contributing to the discourse.
However, the current doctors' strike seems to reflect pitfalls of the
broader health care system in Korea. In part, state support for health care
system including doctors' wage is rather limited or dated. While Korean
government has paid little attention to improving its welfare system,
doctors as individual agents have worked out their own way of looking after
themselves, eg, over-servicing or drugging the patients. Doctors as a group
are to be blamed for such activities and also for creating a climate whereby
people are often not aware of being over-serviced. However, Korean
government's lack of long-term plan for most policies in Korea or patch
solutions are more serious.

Such trials and errors may be part of capitalist society, both developing
and developed. But the countries that are more prepared to learn from
others' mistakes would be called clever ones.

A systematic marketing of multinational pharmaceutical products has taken
place in Korea since the 1970s. In other words, Korea has already been put
into 'long-term medication'. I do not think the current health reform will
benefit the multinational companies much more than it currently does.

Gil-Soo Han
Centre for Rural Health
Faculty of Medicine
Monash University






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