"From Prevention to End-of-Life Care in Your Community"... Strengthening Home and Primary Medical Services

Medical Innovation Committee Recommends Major Overhaul of Local Health System for Super-Aged Society
Public Health Centers to Focus on Strategy and Coordination, Community Institutions to Manage Resident Health
Expanded Mobile Clinics and Public-Private Cooperation in Medically Underserved Areas

In response to the super-aged society, a recommendation has been made to completely overhaul the local public health and primary care system, enabling continuous health management in the community—from disease prevention and treatment to care and end-of-life support.

The Medical Innovation Committee held its 9th meeting on August 27, 2026, at Koreana Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, where it deliberated on the "Local Public Health and Primary Care Innovation Recommendations for Building a Preventive Healthcare System in Response to a Super-Aged Society."

The committee pointed out that the current treatment-centered medical system alone is insufficient to address the complex health issues increasing with a super-aged society, such as frailty, dementia, complex chronic diseases, and polypharmacy. They proposed a shift to a community-based system, where prevention and health management are implemented closer to where residents live.

The newly issued recommendations aim to establish a "comprehensive health safety net from prevention to end-of-life care, regardless of where one lives." Four main strategies are included: ▲Innovating and strengthening the functions of the local public health system ▲Establishing the role of primary care and expanding its functions in the community ▲Promoting collaboration between local public health and primary care ▲Reforming the foundational elements of the local public health system, such as legal, financial, informational, and workforce structures.

The committee first recommended shifting the focus of the local public health system from the performance of individual institutions or projects to "population health." The policy goal should be to improve the health of the entire local population and reduce health inequalities, designing and evaluating policies based on the health outcomes of local residents.

The role of local public health institutions will also be reorganized. City, county, and district public health centers will focus on strategies and planning for local health policy, responding to public health crises, and overall management and coordination of local health. Functions related to prevention, health promotion, and care services close to where residents live will be strengthened through health lifestyle support centers and branch health clinics. In urban areas, the expansion of health lifestyle support centers will be balanced, while in rural and fishing villages, the functions of branch public health centers and community health clinics will be enhanced and restructured as appropriate for local conditions. Plans to increase resident participation in local health governance are also included.

Integrated Care Centered on Primary Care...Universalization of Home Medical Services

The recommendations also stipulate that the nation and local governments must guarantee access to basic primary care in medically underserved areas such as rural regions. The plan is to use a variety of delivery models—such as strengthening the functions of branch and community clinics, supporting private primary care providers, expanding public-private collaborative primary care institutions, and providing mobile and rotating medical services—depending on community needs.

Primary care, according to the recommendations, should move beyond simple clinic-level disease treatment. The system and payment policies should be reformed so that the core functions of primary care—including first contact, comprehensiveness, continuity, and coordination—operate effectively, and so that primary care serves as the main entity for prevention, chronic disease management, and care close to the community.

The structure in which local public health and primary care operate separately for each individual project will also be changed. The two sectors will build a cooperative system that collectively takes responsibility for community residents' health and responds together to key local health issues.

In particular, the roles of local public health and primary care in community integrated care will be strengthened. Functions such as frailty prevention, polypharmacy management, management of discharged patients, visiting medical care, and home medical services will be linked with integrated community care. Institutional foundations will be established so that local public health centers and primary care institutions can participate substantively in integrated support meetings and case management processes.

Integrating Local Health Information and Building an AI Platform

Recommendations were also made to adjust financing and evaluation systems according to local health needs. Moving away from project-specific central government subsidies, funding will be allocated based on local health priorities, and the compensation and evaluation systems will be improved to encourage cooperation between local public health and primary care.

Fragmented local health, medical use, and integrated care data will also be standardized and linked to a unified information system. The plan is to develop and upgrade an AI-based community health management platform that can detect health risks early and connect people to needed services.

To improve job stability and expertise among local public health workers, the recommendations include establishing essential national-level competencies and education/training systems, as well as systematically connecting community medical education from undergraduate programs to residency and continuing education.

The committee also recommended pilot projects to verify these changes in actual communities. Governance would be constructed involving not only local public health and primary care institutions but also the National Health Insurance Service, community resources, and resident representatives. The aim would be to solve substantive health problems of the community population, rather than focusing on the achievements of each institution.

Jung Ki-hyun, Chair of the Medical Innovation Committee, stated, "In a super-aged society, we must transition to a system where health is proactively monitored and residents can continuously receive the necessary medical care and support close to home. I hope these recommendations will serve as a starting point for local public health and primary care to take joint responsibility for residents' health, moving beyond their respective domains."

Meanwhile, the committee also discussed the national communication plan for the second half of the year. On November 7-8, it plans to hold the 2nd public deliberation forum to gather public opinions on the topic of the "Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision System."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.