Daejeon Medical Center Establishment on Track... Targeting Completion in 2026, Project Progressing

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The establishment of Daejeon Medical Center has entered its main track.

According to Daejeon City on the 4th, the day before, the Daejeon Medical Center construction project passed the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s ‘Fiscal Project Evaluation Committee’ hurdle.

This means that the scale and budget of the Daejeon Medical Center construction project have been finalized, and the city evaluates that it has taken a step closer to establishing a public health care system with a circulation system such as ‘public health center - local medical center - university hospital’ based on the establishment of Daejeon Medical Center.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance estimated the Daejeon Medical Center project plan with the existing 319 beds and finalized the total project cost at 175.9 billion KRW, an increase of 44.4 billion KRW from the initial 131.5 billion KRW.

As the appropriateness review of the Daejeon Medical Center project was completed and issues raised during the deliberation process such as additional national funding, increased construction costs, and land acquisition costs became realistic, the city expects the project to be actively promoted soon.

The Daejeon Medical Center project is expected to proceed with the issuance of medical and operational system service orders in the first half of the year, issuance of planning and design orders in the second half, starting construction in 2024, and aiming for completion in 2026.

The city anticipates that once the Daejeon Medical Center is established and operated, it will be possible to function as a public medical safety net capable of responding to national disasters such as COVID-19, strengthen unmet medical services such as essential regional medical care for the disabled, secure citizens’ health rights through leading national medical policies, reduce citizens’ medical expenses burden through quality and appropriate treatment, and build a smart hospital system utilizing information and communication technology.

The Korea Development Institute (KDI) analyzes that the establishment of Daejeon Medical Center will lead to a production inducement effect of 175.2 billion KRW, an employment inducement effect of 1,287 people, and a job inducement effect of 1,430 people.

Lee Dong-han, Director of the City’s Health and Welfare Bureau, said, “Daejeon repeatedly faced problems such as securing isolation beds and medical personnel during infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19,” and added, “However, it is expected that the Daejeon Medical Center will be able to solve the issues of securing professional personnel and beds once it operates normally.”

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