dailypharmkorea

Opinion
[Reporter's View] Non-face-to-face treatment pilot project
by Lee, Jeong-Hwan Dec 04, 2023 05:12am
Starting December 15th, ’24-hour non-face-to-face treatment’ will be available to the public following the legalization of revised non-face-to-face treatment pilot project by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The project will extend the non-fact-to-face treatment benefit that had been previously limited to returning patients to new patients. Patients will be able to request non-face-to-face treatment for all types of diseases, whether acute or chronic, at a clinic where they have made an in-person visit within 6 months. A dramatic increase in the number of non-face-to-face treatment is expected due to the updated policy, which has allocated the responsibility of sorting the non-face-to-face treatment eligibility at the sole discretion of the physicians, regardless of severity of disease. Physicians and pharmacists registered with the Korean Medical Association (KMA) and the Korean Pharmaceutical Association (KPA) have voiced concerns against the newly updated non-face-to-face treatment policy. Their primary view regarding the policy is that the government has forcefully implemented the pilot project without a thorough assessment of its side effects. Shortly after the MOHW's announcement, physicians and pharmacists' associations small and large have all issued statements opposing the revised pilot project. On November 30th at 8:00 a.m., a day before the MOHW released the revised plan, a conference had been held between the advisory panel regarding the non-face-to-face treatment pilot project. Although the KMA, KPA, and the Korea Alliance of Patients Organization have stated their opposing views on the extension of the policy at the meeting, their opinions have not been taken into consideration. Therefore, the panels expressed that the advisory panel for the pilot project was held for formality, wherein the government had not planned to regard any of the opinions proposed at the meeting and the extension of the plan was already a done deal. The Yoon Suk-Yeol administration has been putting an emphasis on running the governmental operation based on ‘social consensus and scientific reasoning,’ especially regarding the major issues of national concern. However, no such consensus or reasoning was made in the process of the non-face-to-face treatment pilot project advisory panel meeting and the revision announcement. Neither scientific statistics nor research analysis data have been suggested for concluding extending the potential patient pool of the ongoing pilot project. It is truly questionable whether MOHW has ruled President Yoon Seok Yul’s comment that “parents of children have a hard time seeking non-face-to-face treatment late at night and on holidays” made in the Cabinet meeting a scientifically backed argument. In contrast, all the opposing voices of physicians, pharmacists, and patient organizations were left unheard. As for the revision, the scientific reasoning-based administration is non-existent and the societal agreement-based policy-making principle has been neglected. Because the non-face-to-face-treatment pilot project is a revision to the public health law and not to the medical law, there seems to be no regulation of MOHW's way of conducting an extension. Despite of opposing views by medical professionals, concerns by patient organizations, and major criticisms by the political party, the pilot project which allows ’24-hour non-face-to-face treatment’ will be accelerated. December 15th will be remembered as the date on which the omnipotent pilot project, which extends the scope of non-face-to-face treatment, overpowers the medical law.