The government will inject finances worth about 1 trillion won to build a region-centered essential care system. It will allocate funds tailored to medical demand and conditions in each region and address care gaps, while also pursuing ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen regional healthcare capacity.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said on the 10th that it held the "4th central-local consultative body on strategies to promote regional, essential, and public healthcare" at the Seoul International Electronics Center and discussed directions for strengthening regional, essential, and public healthcare in 2027 and key projects under the regional essential healthcare special accounts.
The meeting was attended by the director general for regional essential and public healthcare at the ministry, directors of health from 16 cities and provinces, and deputy directors for public affairs from regional responsible medical institutions. Participants discussed the roles of national university hospitals and others in building a region-anchored, closed-loop care system, approaches to allocating resources by city and province, and investment priorities.
The regional essential healthcare special accounts are funds to strengthen essential care tailored to local medical conditions. The 2027 government budget proposal allocates a total of 1.2614 trillion won. Of that, 368.9 billion won will go to new projects, and 892.5 billion won in related projects previously spread across multiple accounts and funds will be transferred into the special accounts.
Using the special accounts, the government plans to enable regions to take the lead in devising ways to close care gaps and to strengthen the foundation for delivering needed medical services within the region. Depending on local conditions in each city and province, the method and scale of fund allocation and investment priorities may vary.
Plans to apply AI to regional healthcare were also discussed. Based on the "AI basic healthcare strategy," the ministry intends to prepare concrete implementation plans for using AI at regional care sites for each city and province. The aim is to use AI in line with local medical resources and demand to improve access to services and strengthen regional healthcare capacity.
The roles of major medical institutions in each region, including national university hospitals, will also be strengthened. By linking and coordinating among medical institutions in the region, the government plans to build a cooperation system centered on regional responsible medical institutions so that essential care, including critical and emergency services, can be provided smoothly within the region.
The central-local consultative body on strategies to promote regional, essential, and public healthcare launched in March. It is a temporary body for the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 16 cities and provinces, and regional responsible medical institutions to discuss pending issues in regional essential healthcare until the "special act to support strengthening essential care and to resolve medical disparities between regions" takes effect.
The special act is scheduled to take effect on March 11, 2027. The regional essential healthcare special accounts will take effect earlier, on Jan. 1, 2027.
A regional responsible medical institution is a central medical institution that builds a collaborative system for public health and medical services within a city or province and handles coordination and linkage of essential care. It is based on Article 14-2 of the Act on Public Health and Medical Services.