Assemblyman Yong-bin Lee: "The Establishment of Gwangju Medical Center Should Be Actively Promoted with Exemption from Preliminary Feasibility Study"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Rep. Lee Yong-bin (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Gwangsan-gap) stated on the 2nd that thorough efforts must be made to ensure that the site for Gwangju Metropolitan Medical Center is designated as a government project exempt from preliminary feasibility study (PFS) requirements.

The day before, the Gwangju Medical Center Establishment Promotion Committee selected the establishment site as the urban convergence special zone project area located on the boundary between Gwangsan-gu and Seo-gu. It is known that factors such as public transportation accessibility, expandability, urgency, and convenience for emergency patient transport were considered in the site selection.

Rep. Lee said, “This decision, which focuses on citizen accessibility and expandability, reflects the expectation that Gwangju’s public healthcare will provide leading public medical services as a life safety net for citizens,” adding, “A progressive approach in terms of content and direction is necessary so that the public medical center can provide high-quality medical services as an advanced medical system, not just as a minimum safety net.”

He also said, “Daejeon, Western Busan, and Jinju in Gyeongnam were selected last year as government projects exempt from PFS and are currently being promoted,” and added, “Since Gwangju is late, we must make every effort to have it designated as a PFS-exempt project within this year so that the main project can be promoted from next year.”

Furthermore, he stated, “The Gwangju Medical Center must establish itself as a leading role presenting a new paradigm of public healthcare,” and said, “I will do my utmost in the National Assembly to advance toward an inclusive welfare society where all citizens can guarantee their right to health without discrimination or exclusion.”

Along with this, he added, “The public nature of healthcare should not stop at providing universal medical services for socially vulnerable groups,” emphasizing, “Providing essential medical services for medical blind spots such as rare and severe diseases, which the private market avoids due to low profitability or few patients, is also an important role of public healthcare.”

Rep. Lee proposed three laws exempting public medical center projects from PFS when establishing public medical centers last year, and recently launched the ‘Public Healthcare Forum’ together with ruling and opposition lawmakers and civil society to create a policy discussion platform to discuss the advanced role of public healthcare.

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