Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 30th-South Korea's Minister of Health and Welfare Zheng Yinjing recently announced that as hospital operations gradually return to normal, the government plans to lower the crisis level of the medical system in the near future.

On September 30, the Associated Press quoted Zheng Cheng as reporting that the government may lower the crisis level after the second week of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in October, and if the holiday medical services remain smooth, the government will hold a crisis assessment meeting next month to adjust the crisis level.

In February 2024, the South Korean government issued a plan to expand medical school enrollment, deciding to increase college medical school enrollment by about 2,000 per year within five years starting in 2025 to solve the medical shortage. The South Korean medical community strongly opposed this enrollment plan, saying the move would trigger problems such as over-medication. Hundreds of thousands of trainees and hospitalized doctors submitted resignations and strikes, causing chaos in the operation of medical institutions. The South Korean government subsequently raised the national health system crisis level to the highest level of "serious".

In April this year, the South Korean government softened its position by announcing that the number of enrollments will be restored to the level before 2025 from the school year, but the vast majority of out-of-the-job doctors have not returned.

According to Zheng Cheng, this week, with the return of a large number of doctors, the burden of clinical treatment in major hospitals has decreased, hospitalization treatment has been almost 100% restored to the level before the crisis, and surgical and outpatient services are also restored to the level of about 95% before the crisis, but it will take more time to fully normalize the affected hospital system.