“Request for National Funding Support for Public Children's Rehabilitation Hospitals” Joint Proposal from the Chungcheong Region

Four cities and provinces in the Chungcheong region jointly requested national government funding for public children's rehabilitation hospitals.

On the 18th, Daejeon City announced that the four cities and provinces of Daejeon, Sejong, Chungnam, and Chungbuk delivered a joint petition requesting national funding for public children's rehabilitation hospitals to relevant government ministries, including the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Currently, in the Chungcheong region, the Daejeon-Sejong-Chungnam Nexon-sponsored Public Children's Rehabilitation Hospital (located in Daejeon) and the Chungbuk Public Children's Rehabilitation Center (located in Cheongju) are in operation.

These medical institutions operate as integrated welfare-type facilities that provide treatment, care, and special education for children with disabilities.

Additionally, each hospital primarily conducts one-on-one, highly specialized treatments due to the characteristics of their patients (children with disabilities).

However, while labor costs on-site are higher than those of general hospitals due to patient characteristics, medical fees are relatively low, and the proportion of long-term patients is high, which adds difficulties to hospital operations. The accumulating deficit structure becomes an obstacle to stable operation and maintenance of the hospitals.

Above all, although public children's rehabilitation hospitals in the metropolitan area and Jeju region (operated by designation) receive 80% of essential labor costs funded by the national government, hospitals in Daejeon and Cheongju do not receive such support.

This is also the reason why the four cities and provinces in the Chungcheong region jointly petitioned the government for national funding for public children's rehabilitation hospitals located in the Chungcheong region.

Min Dong-hee, Director of Welfare at Daejeon City, stated, “The Chungcheong region's public children's rehabilitation hospitals are medical institutions with a new operational model providing integrated medical welfare services to children with disabilities south of the central region. Since they operate with the goal of promoting the human rights and health of children with disabilities and their families, it is necessary to provide stable, high-quality services to children with disabilities through national funding support.”

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