No more hospital concentration in Seoul

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No more hospital concentration in Seoul

The government has vowed to promote public hospitals in provincial areas and restore the essential medical fields in order to reform the medical sector. President Yoon Suk Yeol pointed to the collapse of essential medical fields directly related to public health. He pledged to radically enhance the level of medical treatment in national university hospitals by increasing fiscal investment in essential medical fields and deregulation.

The core of the reform is to upgrade the standards of national university hospitals to be as competitive as top medical centers in the capital region. Public university hospitals had been under the pay and quota cap, as they are classified as public corporation. The removal of the cap could allow a greater government investment to raise their competitiveness. The government plans to form a network between national university hospitals and local hospitals, and at the same time bring national university hospitals under the control of the Health and Welfare Ministry instead of the Education Ministry as in the past.

The plan could save a flurry of patients coming to the capital region for care due to a relative lack of reliable hospitals in provincial areas. The so-called Big Five, including the Seoul National University Hospital and Samsung Medical Center, treated 710,000 outpatients for a whopping 2.18 trillion won ($1.6 billion) last year.

Local hospitals often recommend patients to a bigger hospital in the capital due to their lack of medical experts. In fact, many public hospitals cannot find doctors even when they offer high salary of 300 million won to 400 million won a year.

The provincial areas are short of doctors, as they are mostly concentrated in the capital region. The number of doctors in Seoul is 3.47 per 1,000 people, whereas the ratio is 1.38 in North Gyeongsang and 1.54 in South Chungcheong. The average is less than two in 11 cities and provinces outside the capital region. Capital concentration has been deepening despite the relative strength of people’s income and price levels in provincial areas.

Nine universities in the capital — including Seoul National University, Yonsei University and Korea University — plan to set up their 11 branch hospitals in the capital region other than Seoul. Their combined beds would reach 6,600, sharply more than the average 200 to 300 for 35 public medical centers in provincial areas. The new hospitals to open in the capital region will demand about 3,000 doctors and 8,000 nurses, which will certainly narrow the pool of doctors for provincial hospitals.

A balanced policy is necessary for medical care in particular. If general hospitals are concentrated around the capital, it will help lower market efficiency. A balanced medical service is necessary to even out medical manpower and infrastructure across the country.
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