The Ministry of Health and Welfare will push a plan to designate at least one tertiary general hospital in each of the 14 medical service regions nationwide, in a move to reduce gaps in critical and high-difficulty care by region. A total of 63 hospitals have applied.
The ministry said on the 3rd that it has preannounced an administrative notice of a revision to the Regulation on Designation and Evaluation of Tertiary General Hospitals and will accept opinions through the 22nd.
The core of this revision is to designate at least one tertiary general hospital per medical service region. Tertiary general hospitals are responsible for the final treatment of severe and high-difficulty diseases.
In April, the government, reflecting actual patterns of medical use, subdivided the medical service regions—the unit for designating tertiary general hospitals—from 11 to 14. It split Jeju from the Seoul region and divided the northwestern Gyeonggi region into the Incheon region and the northern Gyeonggi region. It also split the South Chungcheong region into the southern South Chungcheong region and the northern South Chungcheong region.
A total of 63 medical institutions applied for this sixth designation. In addition to the existing 47 tertiary general hospitals, 16 general hospitals applied for new designation.
By region, the Seoul region had the most applications with 18. It was followed by 8 in the southern Gyeonggi region, 7 in the eastern South Gyeongsang region, 5 in the North Gyeongsang region, and 4 in the Incheon region.
By contrast, only Chungbuk National University Hospital applied in the North Chungcheong region. The northern Gyeonggi region and Gangwon region each had three, and the northern South Chungcheong region and North Jeolla region each had two applicants. In the Jeju region, two applied, including Jeju National University Hospital and Jeju Halla Hospital.
The government plans to finalize the revision after this administrative notice.