Namwon in Jeonbuk State has been confirmed as the site of a new national graduate medical school tasked with training doctors for regional, essential and public health care.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the decision on the 1st at the fourth meeting of the preparatory committee for the school. The government assessed Namwon's suitability based on the continuity of a policy initiative dating back to 2018, the city's secured site and the potential to link the school with Namwon Medical Center. No comparative evaluation was conducted against other regions.
The school will operate as a four-year graduate institution. The government plans to open it in 2029 and select 100 students a year starting in 2030, with the first class graduating in 2034. Graduates will be required to serve 15 years at public medical institutions.
The government plans to convert Namwon Medical Center into the National Medical Center Namwon Hospital, expanding it in stages to about 500 beds and using it as the school's clinical training hub. The hospital will strengthen essential care functions such as treatment for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and dementia, while national public medical institutions including the National Medical Center, the National Cancer Center, the National Rehabilitation Center and the National Center for Mental Health will also be used for education and clinical practice.
Securing faculty is another key challenge. According to the ministry, the school must hire at least 112 full-time faculty members, including 25 in basic medical science and 85 in clinical medicine, to meet the standards of the Korean Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation. "Facilities and equipment can be secured with budget and time, but recruiting professors and faculty is the biggest task," Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Hyung-hoon said.
Residency specialties are expected to be limited to match public health care needs. The ministry plans to designate eligible specialties through official notice, taking into account the school's purpose, public health care demand and the characteristics of the institutions where graduates will serve. "It is highly likely that not every specialty will be available, unlike at a typical university hospital," the vice minister said. "We can consider fields such as infectious diseases, trauma and cardiology."
