Government: "Expansion of 20 Regional Medical Centers and 5,000 Beds by 2025"

On the 11th, installation work for a 'container temporary ward' equipped with various facilities such as negative pressure systems and beds is underway at Seoul Medical Center in Jungnang-gu, Seoul. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] The government has decided to build or expand 20 local medical centers by 2025 to strengthen infectious disease response, thereby increasing approximately 5,000 hospital beds.

On the 13th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the "Public Healthcare System Strengthening Plan," which consists of three main areas: ▲ Establishing a reinforced public healthcare system ▲ Expanding and supporting essential medical personnel ▲ Creating conditions for regionally comprehensive medical care.

First, focusing on areas without adequate hospitals within their medical service zones, the plan is to expand about 20 local medical centers with approximately 400 beds each by 2025, adding a total of around 5,000 beds. At least nine centers will be newly built, and 11 will be expanded. The nine newly built centers include six that were previously constructed.

Currently, there are 41 local medical centers nationwide, including the Red Cross hospitals, with a total of 10,450 beds. Among these, 11 centers will be expanded to add about 1,700 beds by 2022, and more than nine hospitals will be newly built by 2025 to secure an additional approximately 3,500 beds.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated, "Local medical centers will be equipped with capabilities to handle infectious diseases and severe emergency care, strengthening their role as essential medical hubs for critical care within their regions."

Additionally, when building new hospitals, if the need for expansion is high and a specific project plan is established, the government will exempt the preliminary feasibility study through Cabinet approval. For other regions, the preliminary feasibility study system will be improved next year to enhance regional balance and publicness.

Currently, preliminary feasibility studies are underway for the Busan Western area and Daejeon Eastern area. The Jinju area is preparing to establish a basic plan. The preliminary feasibility study is a process to review the feasibility of projects involving large-scale national budgets before proceeding.

National treasury support for the construction and expansion of local medical centers will also be increased. For provinces (including special autonomous provinces) and city/county/district governments, the support rate will be temporarily raised from 50% to 60% for three years. Furthermore, the national treasury subsidy ceiling for new medical center construction, currently 16.5 billion KRW, will also be raised.

ICT-based linkage and cooperation among national and public hospitals will be strengthened. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) certification will be expanded for local medical centers, national university hospitals, and Red Cross hospitals. A standard EMR system will be established among national and public hospitals to apply an integrated EMR, thereby enhancing practical information linkage. Moreover, teleconsultation and resource management using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will be activated to fully transform into modernized smart public hospitals.

The functions and roles of national and public hospitals will also be redefined. For example, the National Medical Center will strengthen its role as the central infectious disease hospital and will be additionally designated as the central trauma center and central cardiovascular and cerebrovascular center to perform national essential medical coordination and management functions.

To strengthen diagnostic testing and vaccine and therapeutic development functions in essential but low-profit areas such as infectious diseases and rare diseases, 30 beds will be established as a dedicated translational clinical ward.

The construction and relocation of the National Medical Center will also be pursued, targeting the second half of 2026. The number of beds will increase from 446 to 800, and medical personnel will expand from 1,140 to 1,660.

The government will also strengthen the publicness of national university hospitals to ensure they can play a proper role during infectious disease crises.

Public and private hospitals will be designated as "Regional Responsibility Hospitals" to provide essential medical services within their regions. Medical supply and demand will be analyzed by medical service zones, and Regional Responsibility Hospitals will be gradually designated and fostered nationwide. When re-designating regional cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, emergency, maternal, pediatric, and delivery centers, functions will be assigned centered on Regional Responsibility Hospitals.

Specifically, the goal is to first designate 60 Regional Responsibility Hospitals in 51 medical service zones by 2022 and to designate 96 hospitals in 70 zones by 2025.

Regional Responsibility Hospitals will operate dedicated infectious disease beds to strengthen publicness and will receive financial incentives through additional fees. Patient referrals within the region will be encouraged, and compensation for essential medical areas such as delivery and pediatrics will be enhanced. When primary care institutions such as clinics refer patients requiring medical referral within the same region, fees will be increased to encourage utilization of the regional medical system, and compensation levels will vary depending on the level of patient medical information provided.

Standards for night and high-risk delivery fees, antepartum monitoring fees, and intensive management fees for high-risk pregnant women will be rationalized. Additionally, fees for essential medical services such as neonatal intensive care unit admission, premature infant care, and surgery for children under one year old will be improved.

To discuss institutional and budget systems for each public hospital, the "Public Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee" will be formed, and to strengthen governance between central and local governments, the "Provincial Public Health and Medical Committee" will also be newly established.

To support the expansion of essential medical personnel, the residency training system will be improved. The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to develop and apply a standard training curriculum and consider introducing a "responsible supervising professor system" to oversee and supervise training guidance within hospitals and monitor residents' competency improvement.

Hospitals will be operated centered on specialists by commercializing full-time inpatient specialists. The ratio of residents between metropolitan and local hospitals will be adjusted, and the quota ratio for public hospitals will also be increased.

To improve nurses' working conditions, various pilot projects and training courses will be introduced. The public health scholarship system will be expanded from doctors to nurses, selecting 20 nurses next year and providing scholarships (16 million KRW per person) on the condition of "engagement in public health work." Additionally, when paying overtime and special allowances for COVID-19 response, these will be linked to personnel expenses, and exceptions to the total personnel expense limit for quasi-governmental agencies will be recognized. Additional night shift allowances will also be reviewed.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to discuss and collect opinions on the public healthcare system strengthening plan presented on this day through the medical-government consultative body, six medical association consultative bodies, and user-centered medical innovation consultative bodies before proceeding.

Kang Do-tae, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, said, "In preparation for a period when public health crises such as infectious diseases become constant, we will stably secure infectious disease beds capable of intensive care and ensure that regional hub hospitals with medical capacity and publicness are secured by medical service zones to enhance medical equity."

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