Starting Next Month, Nationwide Hospital Bed Supply Management to Begin in Earnest... "Alleviating Concentration in the Capital Area"

Ministry of Health and Welfare Classifies 70 Medical Service Areas by Population and Accessibility
Flexible Exceptions Allowed for New or Additional Essential and Public Medical Beds

The government will begin actively managing the supply and demand of hospital beds by dividing the entire country into 70 medical service areas starting next month, aiming to alleviate the concentration of beds in the Seoul metropolitan area and reduce disparities in medical service utilization between regions.

Yonhap News

On the 9th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare held a Bed Management Committee meeting and announced that it had finalized and approved the regional bed supply and demand management plans established by 17 metropolitan cities and provinces as a follow-up measure to the "3rd Basic Policy on Bed Supply and Demand (2023?2027)."

As of 2021, South Korea has 28 hospital beds per 1,000 people (a total of 574,000 general and long-term care beds), the highest among OECD countries, approximately three times the OECD average of 4.3 beds. If the current trend continues, it is predicted that by 2027 there will be an oversupply of 105,000 beds (general and long-term care). This oversupply and regional imbalance in beds lead to unnecessary medical utilization by the public and are a major factor driving up healthcare costs.

In particular, large hospitals with more than 300 beds are concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area, while small and medium-sized hospitals are mainly distributed in provincial small and medium-sized cities, causing disparities in medical service utilization between the metropolitan/large cities and provincial small and medium-sized cities. In response, the government announced the 3rd Basic Policy on Bed Supply and Demand in 2023 for rational national-level bed supply management and has been operating the Bed Management Committee since April last year to establish regional bed supply and demand management plans.

At the committee meeting, considering factors such as population, travel time, medical utilization rates, and metropolitan/provincial medical supply plans, the country was divided into 70 medical service areas, and the supply and demand of beds in each region were analyzed. Based on this, each medical service area was classified as a "supply restriction," "supply adjustment," or "supply possible" area, setting target bed numbers and management directions. However, for essential and public medical beds directly related to citizens' lives and health, flexible exceptions for new or additional beds will be allowed.

Supply restriction and adjustment areas are regions where bed supply exceeds demand. There are 63 such areas for general beds and 38 for long-term care beds. These areas must set target bed numbers by choosing either the predicted bed supply for 2027 or the existing bed numbers as of 2023 and restrict new or additional beds below that target.

Supply possible areas are regions where bed supply is insufficient relative to demand, with 7 areas for general beds and 32 for long-term care beds. These areas may add new or additional beds up to the minimum predicted demand for 2027.

Although new or additional hospital beds are generally restricted in areas with oversupply, flexible exceptions will be made for essential and public medical fields directly related to citizens' lives and health, including ▲severe trauma ▲intensive care units ▲emergency medical services ▲maternal delivery ▲pediatric care ▲cardiovascular and cerebrovascular care ▲infectious disease beds. However, these exceptionally approved essential and public beds must be included in the overall bed statistics in the mid-to-long term and managed by adjusting the number of general beds accordingly.

The finalized regional bed supply and demand management plans will be published on the websites of each metropolitan city and province starting today and will be implemented from May after administrative notice by each local government.

Jung Yoon-soon, Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "We expect that the implementation of this regional bed supply and demand management plan will significantly contribute to alleviating the concentration of bed resources in the Seoul metropolitan area and reducing disparities in medical utilization between regions." She added, "We will continuously monitor the progress following the implementation of the system to ensure the establishment of a regionally complete medical delivery system."

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