The government will execute a large-scale infrastructure investment in regional responsible medical institutions to bridge gaps in regional health care. The plan is to raise the "final treatment capacity" of regional health care, which has been weakened by the concentration on large hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area, so that critically ill patients can receive treatment near their residence.
On the 21st, at an economic ministers' meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Koo Yun-cheol, the government announced, in collaboration with relevant ministries, a plan to strengthen the final treatment capacity of regional responsible medical institutions. The core is to modernize facilities and equipment at aging national university hospitals and some private university hospitals to ease the crisis of regional health care collapse.
The government pointed to patients' preference for large hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area as the root cause of the regional health care crisis. As distrust in regional hospitals' treatment capacity has built up, long-distance "expedition" treatment has surged, and as a result, disparities in treatment outcomes depending on residence are widening, it said.
In fact, the gap in amenable mortality rates between Seoul and North Chungcheong Province was found to reach 12.7 percentage points. The government estimated that the social and economic expense incurred in the process of traveling to the metropolitan area for treatment amounts to 4.6 trillion won annually.
The same trend was confirmed in a public perception survey. In a survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in Jun. last year, 81.2% of respondents said "the health care gap between the metropolitan area and the regions is serious." Responses saying that the capabilities of national university hospitals need improvement were 80.3%, and those saying government support is needed were 80.9%.
Conditions in medical settings are also tough. It has been repeatedly noted that 120 major medical devices installed at national university hospitals have exceeded their service life and could negatively affect patient safety.
Accordingly, last year the government invested a total of 203 billion won in 17 regional responsible medical institutions. The aim was to expand operating rooms capable of high-risk surgeries, build systems for severe and critical care, and introduce advanced treatment equipment such as surgical robots and linear accelerators.
The support targets were 14 national university hospitals and three private university hospitals. The funding consisted of 40% from the national government, 40% from local governments, and 20% in hospital self-funding, with the national government's share at 81.2 billion won.
At the time, institutions were divided into three groups based on bed capacity and existing treatment capabilities for differential support. A total of 8 billion won was allocated to three institutions in the Seoul metropolitan area, while 14 non-metropolitan institutions were divided into a middle group (10 institutions) and a latecomer group (four institutions) and supported up to 13.5 billion won and 11 billion won, respectively. This followed the policy of promoting the project using a bottom-up approach that reflects demand by institution.
Support will continue this year. However, the unit amounts will be adjusted by distinguishing between Seoul and non-Seoul regions, and differential support will be provided by reflecting regional medical conditions and alignment with policy objectives when evaluating project plans.
For one institution in Seoul, 6.5 billion to 11 billion won will be allocated; for 15 regional institutions, 10.5 billion to 15 billion won; and for one institution in Sejong, 3 billion to 7.5 billion won. Half will be allocated to strengthening surgical and treatment capacity and half to critical care, and additional support will be decided based on the results of feasibility evaluations of the project plans.
This project is part of the national agenda to strengthen regional, essential, and public health care. The government will form an evaluation committee of experts in health, clinical, and architectural fields to verify the appropriateness of each institution's project plan and its alignment with the support objectives. After project selection, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, local governments, and the National Medical Center (NMC) will continuously check the execution status.
At the same time, administrative procedures will be greatly simplified to ensure swift project implementation. Exceptional measures, such as exemptions from reviews of local government finance investment, will be applied to minimize project delays. As a bill to transfer national university hospital-related national tasks to the Ministry of Health and Welfare has already passed the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the government plans to begin full-scale, comprehensive development of regional responsible medical institutions this year.