North Korean authorities have recently ordered the implementation of “concrete measures” to “normalize” the country’s healthcare system, including the construction of specialized hospitals to combat viruses.
According to a Daily NK source in Pyongyang on Thursday, North Korean authorities ordered the completion of an “advanced healthcare system” late last month. The system reportedly includes the creation of emergency rooms open 24 hours a day along with remote medical services linking urban areas with more rural parts of the country.
North Korea’s healthcare system has been in a state of virtual paralysis since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With medical institutions nationwide operating according to emergency quarantine protocols, doctors no longer reside at small provincial hospitals or clinics.
Daily NK reported last year that a pregnant woman died from blood loss at a hospital in Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, in March after she gave birth alone because no doctors were present.
In August, a man in his 40s who had suffered a stroke died in the hospital after failing to receive emergency care due to the lack of medicine and electricity.
Even before COVID-19, North Korea’s healthcare system failed to deliver proper treatments due to insufficient medical supplies or facilities and an unstable electricity supply. The pandemic has made it even worse.
According to the source, North Korean authorities are placing even more emphasis on the construction of a remote-based system that links medical institutions in urban and rural districts.
That is, the authorities have ordered for the creation of a “unified system” that would see provincial, city, and county hospitals assume authority over small rural clinics, tying them together under a system of responsibility, while the hospitals themselves take orders from higher health institutions and the Ministry of Public Health.
The source said that at the core of the recent measures to implement “advanced” healthcare is the creation of a system that would allow medical teams at major provincial, city, and county hospitals to participate virtually in operations at rural hospitals, and enable remote treatments that require no direct meetings between patients and doctors.
North Korean authorities are also focusing on medical reforms to effectively handle infectious diseases post-COVID-19, ordering the establishment of specialized hospitals dealing with viruses.
The authorities also ordered the digitalization of individual health charts. This essentially calls for the digitalization of individual medical histories, from birth to death.
The source said the Fourth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee called for all medical institutions from Pyongyang down to the provinces to share records on people’s health and treatment history from 2023 following the completion of the Ministry of Public Health’s new information system on individual health management, and to create a unified command structure.
In the recent order, North Korean authorities also emphasized the party’s policies regarding preventive care; namely, that before locals get sick and go to the clinic, the health institutions in charge should take active preventive measures to prevent them from getting sick in the first place.
As high-quality medical services are needed to improve the healthcare system, North Korea also plans to bolster testing standards to select doctors, paramedics, nurses, and pharmacists, and introduce regular tests to evaluate medical personnel.
However, given that individual regions and institutions should provide themselves with insufficient medical facilities and supplies in a “self-reliant” way under the direction of party organizations, it may take quite a while before the healthcare system improves.
