President Yoon Suk Yeol called for improvements to the nation's medical service system and an expansion of the medical workforce to combat the collapse of regional health care directly related to the public’s well-being.

Presiding over a strategic meeting on medical reforms on Thursday, Yoon proposed fostering national university hospitals as a core of the essential medical system to prevent its demise, adding that their administration will shift from the education ministry to the health ministry.

In a bid to bolster essential medical services outside the capital region and to prepare for the aging society, Yoon stressed the need to expand the workforce and to foster talent in apparent reiteration of the administration's push to expand medical school enrollment.

Calling for the legal burden on medical professionals to be eased and insurance fees to be adjusted in order to attract talent in essential departments, such as obstetrics and gynecology as well as pediatrics, Yoon promised sufficient communication with the medical community.

Meanwhile, an official at the presidential office said the scope of the enrollment expansion is expected to be finalized by the first half of next year, with the government having announced that it will take effect starting 2025.