President Yoon visits emergency medical site late at night... Reiterates need to strengthen support for essential medical care = South Korea

South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol visited a regional emergency medical center late at night. There are concerns that the emergency medical system will collapse due to a doctors' strike.
President Yoon encouraged medical staff on the front lines and reiterated his intention to dramatically strengthen support for essential medical care. On the evening of the 4th, President Yoon visited a regional emergency medical center in Gyeonggi Province and spoke to the doctors and nurses working at the hospital.
The President's Office said that he encouraged medical staff and checked the situation at the emergency room. The number of staff accompanying him at the hospital visit was kept to a minimum, taking into consideration the situation at the emergency room where there were patients late at night.
This will be President Yoon's ninth visit to a medical institution since the start of the year, when he held a public discussion meeting on medical reform at Seoul National University Hospital in Bundang on February 1.
In particular, President Yoon said that the workload of emergency room staff is extremely high compared to other medical fields.
He also pointed out that the current administration's medical system, including its medical fee policy (monetary compensation for medical procedures), does not adequately reflect the difficulties faced by hospitals.
President Yoon said that essential medical services, such as emergency medical care, childbirth, pediatrics, and treatment of seriously ill patients, will be provided.
He pointed out that compensation in the medical field was unfair and expressed his intention to dramatically strengthen support for essential medical care.
During the press conference, he also touched on the importance of "fair medical services without discrimination regardless of where you live," as he had already made clear, as well as the importance of reducing the legal risk burden on medical workers.
President Yoon's visit to the emergency room on this day came amid concerns about a medical vacuum at hospitals due to a mass exodus of medical residents (interns) in protest against an increase in medical school admissions quotas.
President Yoon has been visiting hospitals to personally check on the medical field amid the protracted conflict between the medical community and the government. This time, he visited the hospital to mark the mid-autumn celebrations (Chuseok, Chungcheong).
The visit was made to grasp the situation at the hospital ahead of the Autumn Festival holiday. A presidential office official said, "It has nothing to do with the visits to medical facilities by the ruling and opposition party leaders. We have been conducting internal visits to medical facilities for some time now."
"We were considering the issue," he said, "and following last week's national briefing and press conference, we discussed further site visits."