Free Medical Care System in the DPRK

Leopoldo Ortiz, head of a Peruvian delegation after looking round the Okryu Children’s Hospital in Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK, in 2016, said as follows: I can hardly believe as I witnessed everything while looking round the hospital. I would like to emphasize the fact that the DPRK attaches great importance to children, the future of the country. In conclusion, I was deeply moved by the free medical service, robust infrastructure, top-ranking technology, excellent design, classrooms and playground laid out for inpatients, telemedicine system and professional qualifications of the hospital’s medical team.

The Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, Koryo Medicine General Hospital, Kim Man Yu Hospital, Ryugyong Dental Hospital, Ryugyong General Ophthalmic Hospital and others have been built in the Munsu area of Pyongyang, known as a hospital village.

Hospitals equipped with modern medical service facilities are located in all places, from the capital city to mountain villages and far-flung islands, where the people live. Industrial establishments, as well as coal and ore mines and ocean fishing fleets also have hospitals, clinics and first-aid stations.

Workers, farmers, intellectuals and all other people have the right to enjoy the benefits of free medical care, regardless of gender, age, domicile, occupation and the quantity and quality of work done.

The country takes special care of children, pregnant women and nursing mothers. Medical teams are organized with competent doctors for those diagnosed as being pregnant with triplets or quadruplets, and the newborns are helicoptered to hospitals in Pyongyang–this have become commonplace in the country.

All the people are provided by the state, free of charge, with all conditions necessary for various medical services at hospitals, including check-up, consultation, examination, emergency, inpatient treatment and various surgical operations.

A large number of patients who were diagnosed as incurable are being brought back to life thanks to the benefits of free medical care system enforced in the country.

A few years ago, Kim Pom Hyang, student of Chongjin College of Light Industry, was taken to the Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences Hospital. She was in a critical condition; her temperature soared over 39℃ with pulse rate of more than 130 beats and respiration of 30 per minute. She had more than 10 times of transfusion as she lost 70％ of blood caused by gastric hemorrhage. She was given more than 10 000 medicines of over ten kinds, and underwent more than a hundred checkups during her 90-day stay in the hospital. Ri Kwang Ho, doctor in her charge, said that the medicines used for her treatment was tantamount to large sums of money. But the patient knew nothing about this.

The same is the case with all other patients who are hospitalized. The Korean people do not know how much they have to spend for their treatment.

They have enjoyed the benefits of free medical care system for scores of years. When the Korean war was at its height, the country adopted a decision of the DPRK Cabinet On Enforcing the System of Free Medical Service on November 13, Juche 41 (1952), as part of the measures for taking care of their life and promoting their health even under the difficult wartime conditions when everything was devastated and was in short supply due to enemy bombings. It enforced universal free medical care at the state’s expense on January 1, Juche 42 (1953).

Thanks to the benefits of the complete and universal free medical care system with the focus on preventive medicine, the Korean people have no worries about their medical treatment.