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President KIM IL SUNG who passed away 27 years ago on the 8th of July 8th 1994 was the builder and guide of People’s Korea , all the achievements of building socialism based on the Juche idea in People’s Korea are intimately associated with President KIM IL SUNG and his leadership. He was known as a true people’s leader and a benevolent father of the people .
An incident the other day caused me to reflect on the great work done by President KIM IL SUNG to create the superior ,people centred socialist public healthcare system . I required medical treatment and tried to arrange an appointment with my local clinic . It proved impossible to do so , I was kept waiting for over an hour on the phone and still could not get an appointment . My mind turned to People’s Korea where the section doctor system is in force. Under the section doctor system of the DPRK , doctors actually visit their patients at home to give them a check-up even before they become ill !.
The section doctor system is just one part of the DPRK advanced socialist health system that was established by the great leader President KIM IL SUNG . In June 1946 the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea enacted the Labour Law for Factory and Office Workers which included medical help .
At the height of the great Fatherland Liberation War President
KIM IL SUNG ,who was busy commanding the Korean People’s Army in the war,had the cabinet of the DPRK adopt Decision no 203 on the
13th of November 1952 , which decreed that a universal free health care system should be introduced . President KIM IL SUNG had conferred with an official early in 1952 about the need for medical care during wartime and decided free health care should be introduced even though it would require a great deal of funds.
On the 1st of January 1953 the universal free health care system was introduced . Thus the DPRK established a free health care system not in ideal peacetime conditions but at the height of the war when everything was in short supply and the US air force was bombing the country every day causing enormous human and material losses. Moreover the DPRK was a small country not a big country or a country with a huge empire unlike some .
Later the right to free health was enshrined in the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK and the Law on Public Health of 1980.
The DPRK’s healthcare system is not only free of charge but is genuinely people-orientated .It was President KIM IL SUNG’s firm conviction that the the healthcare system must be people-orientated and fundamentally different to a capitalist , Speaking to officials of the Ministry of Public Health on the 20th of October 1966 he said that
“ Socialist, people-oriented medical science is fundamentally different from bourgeois medicine.
Bourgeois medicine does not pay any attention to prevention. By its very nature bourgeois society cannot make any efforts to prevent people from falling ill. This is because the prevention of diseases is not in the interests of capitalists. They are interested in selling as much medicine as possible and so they would prefer a large number of people to fall ill, and they encourage diseases”
This is what makes the DPRK ‘s healthcare system qualitatively different and superior to the health care system in capitalist countries .
Today People’s Korea has many modern hospitals and DPRK medical workers are working hard taking care of people . This is another of the great legacies bequeathed by President KIM IL SUNG .
We remember the great leader President KIM IL SUNG for many things which include the work he did to build up a people-centred socialist healthcare system .
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman , British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea.
Chairman Korean Friendship Association of the UK.
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK
Chairman British Solidarity Committee for Peace on the Korean Peninsula.
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