[Exclusive] Primary health care workforce expansion needed for future challenges: WHO

The World Health Organization, when asked about the monthslong medical standoff in South Korea, said Tuesday that expanding the primary health care workforce is needed to cope with future challenges.

"Challenges of the future -- including aging, prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and new patterns of accessing health services -- require expanding the supply of services, particularly at primary health care settings, where most health needs should be addressed," said the UN agency's Regional Office for the Western Pacific in an email response to The Korea Herald.

"WHO advocates for primary health care-based systems that deliver health services where people are or as close to them as possible -- a system that actively engages with communities and works to keep populations healthy rather than waiting for them to fall sick to be treated later," it added.

The UN agency is working with governments to advocate "transformative primary health care," it said, explaining that such a system should have not only well-equipped health facilities but also "fit-for-purpose personnel, including doctors, nurses and other skilled health workers."

The WHO response came amid intense conflict between the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and doctors' groups here. Both sides have been calling for the need to bolster the primary health care provided on a day-to-day basis, such as by physicians at local clinics. However, they have struggled to agree on the details of the government-led reform plan.

Since February, thousands of junior doctors have walked off the job to protest the government's plan to hike the medical school admissions quota to around 5,000 students per year, from around 3,000, starting next year. The situation has led to disruptions in the country's medical system, including surgery cancellations and delays in treatment, according to reports.

The UN agency dedicated to improving global health also expressed concerns that a lack of adequate health professionals could inconvenience patients, and indirectly urged both the government and doctors' groups here to act together to resolve the ongoing strike and carry out a policy shift towards building a sustainable medical workforce.

"A motivated and competent health workforce in the right numbers, in the right places, with the right skill mix is central to providing people-centered, integrated care, and achieving universal health coverage and the health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals," it said.

"A lack of adequate health professionals can disrupt health services, especially for vulnerable populations," it continued.

"In the Western Pacific Region, WHO is working with governments to advocate what we call transformative PHC (primary health care). That requires a policy shift towards a PHC-based health workforce that can reach the unreached and leave no one behind."