Mayor Lee Jangwoo: "Meticulous Plan Needed to Secure Government Support for Public Children's Rehabilitation Hospital"

Presiding Over Weekly Work Meeting
"Public Healthcare Infrastructure Expansion Pledge...
We Must Estimate Both Operating and Deficit Costs"

Lee Jangwoo, mayor of Daejeon, is presiding over the weekly work meeting on the 9th. / Daejeon City

On the 9th, Lee Jangwoo, mayor of Daejeon, stated, "It is extremely important to devise a plan that will allow us to secure significant government funding for establishing a national operational system for public children's rehabilitation hospitals."

Presiding over the weekly work meeting that morning, Mayor Lee emphasized, "Public healthcare is not a choice but a right and a social responsibility."

Daejeon has been operating the nation's first public children's rehabilitation hospital since 2023, providing rehabilitation for infants, young children with disabilities, and children with severe disabilities. However, Daejeon City has been covering annual deficits amounting to several billion won each year.

Mayor Lee's remarks are interpreted as a call for a proactive response, as the new government has made strengthening the public nature of healthcare?including expanding public hospitals, implementing a national responsibility system for essential healthcare, and introducing a primary care physician system?a core national policy task.

Mayor Lee stressed, "Since we pledged to expand public healthcare infrastructure, we must calculate all future operating and deficit costs for the public children's rehabilitation hospital. If we do not, we are highly likely to face significant difficulties in the future, so we must be fully prepared."

He also instructed the thorough implementation of major local government tasks linked to central government pledges, such as the Daejeon-Chungnam administrative integration, the second phase of relocating public institutions to innovative cities, and the three-dimensional development of urban railway sections.

Regarding the new government's consideration of a supplementary budget of at least 20 trillion won, he said, "Various measures to maximize the resolution of the economic downturn will be included, so we must thoroughly prepare for those projects that were not reflected in last year's budget. The most important thing is for our city to be fully prepared for the projects that must be included in the supplementary budget."

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