Ministry of Health and Welfare Finalizes Plan to Reduce Caregiving Costs... Integrating Nursing and Caregiving to Resolve 'Ganbyeong Hell'

The government has prepared measures to reduce the burden of private caregiving costs, which are so severe they are referred to as "caregiving hell." The "Integrated Nursing and Caregiving Service," where nurses in hospitals take full responsibility for caregiving, will be expanded to include critically ill patients, and a pilot project to support caregiving costs for patients admitted to long-term care hospitals with high medical needs will be implemented starting next year.

On the 21st, the Ministry of Health and Welfare finalized and announced the "National Caregiving Cost Burden Reduction Plan" after consultations between the ruling party and the government.

This plan was made based on the assessment that the burden of caregiving on the public is becoming increasingly serious due to aging. The burden of private caregiving costs has continuously increased, with recent estimates exceeding 10 trillion won.

During his presidential campaign, President Yoon Seok-yeol pledged to halve caregiving costs by expanding the integrated nursing and caregiving service and making caregiving costs at long-term care hospitals covered by insurance. After his election, he selected this as a national agenda.

At the Cabinet meeting on the 19th, President Yoon emphasized, "The burden of caregiving costs has become a serious social issue to the extent that the term 'caregiving hell' is used," and urged, "Establish a comprehensive caregiving service system that can be used safely and conveniently."

The government will first expand the integrated nursing and caregiving ward service, currently focused on mild patients, to include critically ill patients. Dedicated wards for critically ill patients, such as those undergoing major surgery or suffering from dementia or delirium, will be introduced. Staffing standards will be set at one nurse per four patients, and the service will be initially introduced in 45 tertiary general hospitals and 30 general hospitals with over 500 beds.

To expand the service, hospitals with a higher proportion of critically ill patients will allocate more nursing staff, and a compensation system will be introduced to increase rewards for medical institutions and nursing personnel. General hospitals with a high ratio of critically ill patients will apply staffing standards similar to tertiary general hospitals, where one nurse cares for five patients, and provide one substitute nurse per two wards to cover absences. For nursing assistants, the current standard of one per 10 wards will be raised to one per three wards.

To increase participation rates of medical institutions, the bed participation rate among performance evaluation incentive indicators will be raised to 35%, and local general hospitals and national university hospitals will receive a monthly support of 300,000 won per nurse for three years.

The current limit of up to four integrated nursing and caregiving wards in tertiary general hospitals will be relaxed, with the restriction completely lifted for hospitals outside the metropolitan area by 2026. Metropolitan tertiary general hospitals will be allowed up to six wards to prevent patient concentration.

Patients and their families are having visits at the nursing hospital. Photo by Joint Press Corps

Support for caregiving costs through public insurance will begin with long-term care hospitals. From July next year to December 2025, a first-phase pilot project will be conducted targeting 10 long-term care hospitals, with plans to transition to a full project from 2027. Since caregiving costs will be supported by the state, the eligible hospitals and patients will be strictly limited. Patients will receive support only if they are assessed by external agencies as having both high medical necessity and caregiving needs, and hospitals will be supported only if they have a high proportion of patients with high medical necessity.

The government also plans to provide various medical, nursing, and care services for patients after discharge, who are a blind spot in caregiving. It will establish management standards for caregiving workforce supply institutions and introduce a registration system to improve service quality.

Additionally, the government will develop caregiving and care robots. Currently, it is investing 45 billion won in research and development of robots that assist with excretion, mobility, bathing, eating, and pressure ulcer prevention. The government is considering developing these robots in conjunction with social service linkage models, such as deploying them in rental housing with many elderly residents.

The Korean Nurses Association commented on these measures, saying, "We expect that opportunities for critically ill patients to receive high-quality nursing and caregiving services will increase," and added, "This will open the way to improve the safety and quality of services for patients using integrated wards while alleviating the burden of private caregiving costs."

Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyu-hong stated, "As we approach a super-aged society, we will promptly establish a system that allows patients to safely use necessary caregiving services from hospitalization and surgery to recovery, long-term care, and post-discharge, thereby reducing the public's caregiving cost burden."

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