Chungnam Provincial Council Urges Expansion of Tertiary Hospitals

Jeong Byeong-in Lawmaker "Chungnam Has 1.5 Times More Population Than Daejeon but Reduced to One"

On the 10th, the Chungnam Provincial Council adopted the "Resolution Urging the Expansion of Tertiary General Hospitals in Chungcheongnam-do," which was proposed by Representative Jeong Byeong-in (Democratic Party, Cheonan 8).

According to the Provincial Council, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been designating and operating tertiary general hospitals by region since 2011. In December of last year, among the 47 tertiary general hospitals designated in the 5th term, three were designated in the Chungnam area: Dankook University College of Medicine Hospital, Chungnam National University Hospital, and Konyang University Hospital under the Konyang Educational Foundation.

In response, Representative Jeong pointed out the evaluation criteria that do not consider regional characteristics and urged the expansion of tertiary general hospital designations in Chungnam and improvements to the allocation system for required hospital beds.

Representative Jeong stated, "When designating the 5th term tertiary general hospitals last year, Chungnam was reduced from two hospitals to one, while Daejeon increased from one hospital to two," adding, "Considering that Chungnam's population is 1.5 times larger than Daejeon's, this has caused an imbalance in infrastructure for treating severe patients."

He further added, "The reduction in tertiary general hospitals will exacerbate the 33% higher outflow of patients seeking treatment outside Chungnam," and "The evaluation methods for assigning dedicated specialists to inpatients and for designating the required number of hospital beds by region are also biased in favor of metropolitan hospitals rather than local hospitals, which is problematic."

This resolution will be forwarded to the government, the National Assembly, and relevant ministries.