However, the limitations of the current military medical service seem difficult to overcome. Sufficient quality medical personnel and medical equipment must be secured to solve problems of insufficient skilled medical personnel, shortage/deterioration of medical equipment, insincere/unfriendly treatment, long waiting times for reservations and reception. However, the difficulties arising in the process can be easily predicted, and this problem has yet to be resolved. In order to increase the servicemen's satisfaction with health care services, it is also necessary to continuously educate military commanders and military health care personnel so that patient-centered communication and treatment can be achieved, and secure high-quality medical personnel and medical equipment. However, given the realistic difference in human and material resources between civilian hospitals and the military medical facilities, a task that should be resolved with a higher priority is for the soldiers to freely use the medical institutions, especially civilian hospitals. Since 2019, the Ministry of National Defense has implemented measures to “simplify the procedure for using civilian hospitals for the active duty soldiers,” allowing the soldiers to receive medical treatment at a civilian hospital on the same day if approved by the unit commander, and starting in 2021, the ‘Soldier Private Hospital Medical Expense Support Program’ (providing up to 80% of co-pay) has been implemented. However, it is necessary to devise a plan to better utilize the civilian medical system because many of the soldiers do not use medical services due to ‘difficulty saying that he/she is sick due to the atmosphere in the unit,’ ‘not having time to go to a medical institution or leave their place of work due to training or work,’ ‘going to a hospital will make it difficult for their colleagues,’ and the military still retains a system and practice that prioritizes ‘treatment at military medical institutions.’ To this end, it is necessary to take measures, including establishing statutory provisions to guarantee the soldiers’ ‘right to choose medical treatment’ and a new provision requiring commander’s approval when applying for sick leave for the purpose of medical treatment, easing of the requirements for the soldiers to use sick leave, and allowing soldiers to use vacation in 1-hour increments, etc. This will minimize factors that hinder soldiers from receiving medical treatment at civilian hospitals, and at the same time, the military medical institutions need to more actively operate nighttime medical care so that the soldiers can receive medical treatment more conveniently. 179