Incheon City Designates Primary Care Hospitals on 7 Islands for Free Medical Services... New Hospital Ship Also Constructed

Incheon City Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City is actively working to improve medical support in island areas with poor healthcare by designating primary care hospitals on seven islands without land bridges and constructing new hospital ships.

The city announced on the 8th that it has prepared a plan to improve medical support in island areas.

First, medical support will be strengthened for seven island areas (myeon) not connected to the mainland.

In cooperation with general hospitals in the region, the city will designate a "one island, one primary care hospital" and promote a tentative "Aein (愛仁) Hospital" project, where each hospital is responsible for one island and provides regular free medical services.

Additionally, the old hospital ship will be replaced with a newly built vessel to provide mobile medical services to island areas without medical facilities. Currently, hospital ships operate in three myeon and nine island areas of Ongjin-gun, where there are no medical institutions, but due to aging, there are limitations in providing medical services.

The city plans to invest 12 billion KRW to build a new 200-ton hospital ship, which will begin operation in 2025. With the new hospital ship, the areas covered by mobile medical services will expand to seven myeon and 23 island areas, and it will also be able to respond to emergency disaster situations in the West Sea region.

To minimize medical service gaps, the city will actively request central government agencies to secure as many public health doctors as possible and will continue to support the expansion of medical personnel and equipment at Baengnyeong Hospital.

Furthermore, the city will maintain five doctor helicopter transfer points (helipads) in island areas for emergency patient transport and promote the establishment and maintenance of a remote medical system to prepare for urgent situations.

In particular, the city plans to continue the recently resumed "free medical service project for island areas."

Started in 2015 and suspended after 2019, the public-private cooperative free medical service project for island areas aims to overcome the limitations of public healthcare by utilizing private medical personnel and resources to address one of the biggest issues in island living conditions: medical care.

In October, the city began the first public-private cooperative free medical service project of the year in Deokjeok-myeon with Incheon Sejong Hospital, and on the 8th, it provided free medical services to residents of Daecheong-myeon in cooperation with Inha University Hospital.

On that day, medical staff from Inha University Hospital provided services such as pain treatment necessary for the elderly, nutritional fluid injections, and dental care to 100 pre-registered residents of Daecheongdo.

According to the city, among residents of seven myeon island areas in Ganghwa-gun and Ongjin-gun not connected to the mainland, the proportion of elderly people aged 65 or older averages 31%, with Seodo-myeon in Ganghwa-gun reaching 51%.

However, except for health centers, there is only one hospital or clinic on Baengnyeongdo, and there are no pharmacies in these areas.

An Incheon city official stated, "To eliminate medical blind spots in island areas, we have assigned 82 public health doctors to health centers and hospital ships and are supporting 3.3 billion KRW this year for new construction and expansion of health centers (clinics) and replacement of outdated medical equipment. However, as the nationwide number of public health doctors continues to decrease, medical issues in island areas are becoming increasingly serious."