Governor Lee Cheol-woo's 'Outburst Protest'... Ministry of Health Doubles Compensation for Gyeongbuk Yeongju Red Cross Hospital

This Governor Raised 'Corona Hospital' Management Crisis at Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting
"Risked Lives Working, Unpaid Leave Is Absolutely Unacceptable"
Compensation Inequality Caused by Ignoring Hospital Opening

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] Yeongju Red Cross Hospital in Gyeongbuk, which was designated as a dedicated hospital for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), has been pushed into a situation where it could not even pay its employees' salaries due to the government's unrealistic loss compensation standards. However, it has now been able to breathe somewhat easier following the Prime Minister's directive for a review.

The management crisis of Yeongju Red Cross Hospital was widely publicized externally after Gyeongbuk Governor Lee Cheol-woo officially mentioned it during a video meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters chaired by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on the 12th.

On that day, in front of ministers from various departments and city and provincial governors, Governor Lee said, "Infectious disease dedicated hospitals in the province are facing many difficulties in hospital management, but especially Yeongju Red Cross Hospital is in a severe management crisis," and targeted the Ministry of Health and Welfare by stating, "It is absolutely unacceptable to send employees on unpaid leave due to lack of funds after risking their lives treating COVID-19 patients."

Upon hearing about this situation directly, Prime Minister Chung instructed Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo to reconsider, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare reportedly notified the hospital that it would double the advance payment (a roughly calculated compensation amount), offering an additional 600 million won separate from the 600 million won already paid.

Yeongju Red Cross Hospital, which served as a dedicated infectious disease hospital for 74 days from February 23 to May 6, has so far received about 600 million won in advance payments in two installments. However, this amount was less than a quarter of its pre-dedicated hospital income. Compared to the per-bed unit price (194,093 won) received by the nearby Sangju Red Cross Hospital, Yeongju Red Cross Hospital was evaluated at less than half that rate (85,089 won).

This calculation resulted from the government’s complete disregard of the unique characteristics of Yeongju Red Cross Hospital, which newly opened in July 2018. When calculating the advance payment, the government uniformly set the standard based on inpatient treatment fees from early 2019 for all dedicated hospitals, which instead created a structure of practical inequality.

Yeongju Red Cross Hospital, a regional base medical center, is operated in a way that the Korean Red Cross and Yeongju City each bear 50% of the operating deficit, so if the deficit widens, the burden on Yeongju citizens inevitably increases.

Regarding this, Yeongju Mayor Jang Wook-hyun said, "Yeongju Red Cross Hospital, the only general hospital in Yeongju City, has caused great inconvenience to Yeongju citizens as it treated only patients from other regions as a national infectious disease dedicated hospital," and repeatedly emphasized the government's additional payment by stating, "The government should not pass on the costs caused by patients from other regions to Yeongju citizens."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.