Health and Welfare Minister Advocates for Birth Notification System
In response to a tragic incident involving the discovery of two deceased infants in a refrigerator in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyu-hong is pushing for the implementation of a ‘birth notification system’.
Minister Cho recently attended a general meeting of the Health and Welfare Committee at the National Assembly, where he addressed concerns raised by Representative Kim Mi-ae of the People’s Party regarding the aforementioned case.
Currently, when a child is born in a medical institution, they are assigned a temporary newborn number for national compulsory vaccination. However, this number does not include the mother’s information, making it impossible to track unreported children based on provisional birth counts.
The Audit and Inspection Board highlighted the existence of a blind spot in the system, pointing out that local governments had to directly investigate cases like the tragic incident in Suwon to uncover instances of unreported births.
A report from the Audit and Inspection Board revealed that approximately 2,000 babies were not registered after birth between 2015 and last year, raising concerns about the need for a more comprehensive birth notification system.
Minister Cho emphasized the urgency of introducing a birth notification system in medical institutions, which would not only allow for better tracking but also ensure the protection of anonymously born children.
In addition, Minister Cho mentioned the consideration of establishing local medical schools in response to concerns raised by certain local governments and the possibility of increasing the number of medical schools. However, he acknowledged the challenges faced when discussing public medical schools in 2020, particularly the lack of involvement of patient and consumer groups in the decision-making process.
Minister Cho assured that going forward, the opinions of patients, user groups, experts, and medical associations will be gathered separately to ensure a comprehensive approach when estimating the required number of medical professionals.
[조규홍 복지부 장관 <사진=연합뉴스>]
Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyu-hong, in connection with the case where two babies were found dead in a refrigerator in an apartment in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, is promoting the legislation of the ‘birth notification system’, where medical institutions are notify local governments of the birth, and the legal grounds for tracking the mother of unreported children. He said he would organize it quickly.
Minister Cho attended the general meeting of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly today (22nd) and answered the question of Representative Kim Mi-ae, the power of the people, related to this case.
When a child is born in a medical institution, a temporary newborn number is automatically assigned for national compulsory vaccination.
However, due to the limitation that the mother’s information is not included in the provisional birth count for vaccination, tracking of unreported children based on the provisional birth count has not been done so far .
Then, the Audit and Inspection Board noted that there would be cases of children in such a blind spot, and that local governments check some cases directly, confirming Suwon’s infanticide.
The Audit and Inspection Board found that there were approximately 2,000 babies whose births were not registered after giving birth over 8 years between 2015 and last year.
Minister Cho emphasized the urgent need to introduce a birth notification system in medical institutions as well as a protected birth system that allows the state to protect children born anonymously by women in medical institutions.
Minister Cho said that the establishment of local medical schools promoted by some local governments would be considered along with the issue of increasing the number of medical schools.
“However, there were problems when discussing public medical schools in 2020,” he said.
Minister Cho pointed out that Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Won-i said that patients and consumer groups were not part of the discussion on increasing the quota for medical schools. “In the future, we will collect the opinions of patients, user groups and experts separately. as well as medical groups in the process of estimating the number of people,” he said.
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