Gyeonggi-do to Promote Establishment of 'Northeastern Innovative Public Medical Center'... Completion by 2030

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon is holding a press conference on the establishment of the Gyeonggi Eastern Public Medical Center at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government briefing room on the 5th.

An 'innovative public medical center' will be established around 2030 in the relatively medically underserved northeastern regions of Gyeonggi Province, including Yeoncheon, Gapyeong, and Yangpyeong. Currently, Gyeonggi Province has six public medical centers: three in the southern part of Gyeonggi (Suwon, Anseong, Icheon, Paju, Uijeongbu, Pocheon) and three in the northern part.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 5th that from May to July, it will accept site applications for the establishment of a public medical center from eight cities and counties in northeastern Gyeonggi?Uijeongbu, Dongducheon, Yangju, Yeoncheon, Namyangju, Guri, Yangpyeong, and Gapyeong. Then, a 'Medical Center Establishment Deliberation Committee' involving both public and private sectors will be formed to select the final site by the end of this year.

To this end, Gyeonggi Province will conduct a 'Research Project for Developing an Innovative Public Hospital Model' from this month until October.

Previously, to establish a public medical center in the northeast, Gyeonggi Province formed the 'Gyeonggi Northeast Medical System Improvement Committee' composed of health and medical experts in June last year and has been discussing the direction for establishing the public medical center.

The Gyeonggi Northeast public medical center will initially perform roles such as responding to infectious disease crises and supporting hospice patients, which are currently carried out by the existing six public medical centers, while expanding medical services to include mental health, care services, and preventive medicine.

Additionally, to innovate medical services, it will strengthen groundbreaking digitalization and collaboration with university hospitals and expand education and training for essential medical personnel.

Furthermore, it plans to improve management efficiency, which has been pointed out as a problem of public medical centers, by introducing private hospital operation techniques and cloud-based computer systems, and by linking with regional cooperative hospitals, public health centers, and branches.

Once the medical center site is selected, Gyeonggi Province plans to begin construction around 2030 after conducting feasibility studies and preliminary government feasibility investigations.

Since the project cost, excluding land acquisition, amounts to 159.1 billion KRW, Gyeonggi Province will actively consider the Build-Transfer-Lease (BTL) method of private investment to reduce financial burdens.

Governor Kim Dong-yeon of Gyeonggi Province stated at a press briefing that "the northeastern region of Gyeonggi lacks advanced general hospitals for treating severe diseases, and some areas such as Yeoncheon, Gapyeong, and Yangpyeong do not even have 24-hour emergency rooms or delivery rooms, resulting in poor medical infrastructure. Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province has decided to actively promote the establishment of a public medical center in the northeast."

He continued, "Looking at these areas, the fragile emergency medical system is serious. The mortality rate from heart disease in South Korea is 12.7 per 100,000 people, but in the northeast, it is 16.2, and the cerebrovascular mortality rate is 23.7, significantly exceeding the national average of 20. Particularly, the aging rate is 18% nationwide, but Yeoncheon is 28.3%, Gapyeong is 27.9%, and the average for the northeastern region reaches 27%," he explained.

Regarding reinforcement projects for the existing six medical centers, Governor Kim said, "Existing public medical centers have played an important role during difficult times such as the COVID-19 pandemic." However, he added, "There are challenges such as operational deficits, and some medical centers lack obstetrics and pediatrics departments, which has sometimes failed to meet the medical needs of local residents. We will also promote improvement plans for existing hospitals through the Medical System Improvement Committee formed in June last year."

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