Former med professor chooses to work in rural public health service

“Many tried to talk me out of it, but I couldn’t leave patients behind in such tough conditions,” said Lim Gyeong-su (68), the head of the Gobu Public Health Center in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, explaining how he came to work at the local health center in an interview with The Dong-A Ilbo in an interview on March 6.

Lim is known for having laid the foundation for the emergency medical system in Korea. In 1994, he drafted the Emergency Medical Service Act with former Soonchunhyang University Professor Park Yoon-hyung. Born and raised in Seoul, Lim settled in Jeongeup. He retired from Seoul Asan Medical Center, where he had worked for 33 years, and took the position of Director of Jeongeup Asan Medical Center in January 2022.

He realized that he could not leave Jeongeup even after his term at the Jeongeup Asan Hospital ended in September of last year. He was appointed as the director of the Gobu-myeon Health Center in November last year. His friends and family tried to talk him out of it, but they could not break his will to “do good for the country.” “After becoming a public health doctor, I could no longer receive private school pension. It’s not easy living in a 5-pyeong room on top of the center. There were many challenges, but I could not leave behind the patients relying on me,” he said.

He stays in Jeongeup four days a week, Monday through Thursday, and treats patients from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. He also gives special lectures to 44 villages in Gobu-myeon to raise awareness of the importance of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. “An experienced doctor like Lim would easily earn 400 to 500 million won annually. He still chose to serve public health medicine, which offers less than 3 million won a month,” according to a medical source.

Lim emphasized that more institutional support should be provided to encourage senior doctors to contribute to local medical care. “We need to revise the Private School Teachers Pension Act, which cuts off teacher pensions when former teachers start working as public health doctors, and revise related laws to allow senior doctors to be employed as public health doctors,” he said.


박영민 minpress@donga.com