Mayor Shin Sang-jin:
"Delegating Operation to a University Hospital
Is Essential to Meet Citizens' Expectations"
Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province has urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare to decide on the approval of the 'Seongnam City Medical Center University Hospital Delegation' that has been pending for 1 year and 4 months.
According to the city on the 21st, to resolve the operational issues of Seongnam City Medical Center, which has been trapped in a vicious cycle of medical staff departures, patient decline, and expanding medical losses, the city requested the Ministry of Health and Welfare in November 2023 to delegate the operation to a university hospital.
However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has not notified the approval status for 1 year and 4 months, citing the lack of approval criteria and precedents.
Regarding this, Mayor Shin Sang-jin of Seongnam stated, “Delegating operation to a university hospital is essential to provide high-quality university hospital-level medical services that meet citizens' expectations and to strengthen public medical projects for vulnerable groups,” urging the Ministry of Health and Welfare for prompt approval.
Mayor Shin also emphasized, “Although gradual improvements have been made since Director Han Ho-seong’s inauguration last September, the average bed occupancy of 100 patients (about 20% utilization of the total 509 beds) is an unacceptable level for a general hospital with 509 beds fully equipped with the latest facilities and equipment,” adding, “Fundamental operational system reform and revitalization of medical services are urgent.”
According to the agreement signed in December 2024, Professor Lee Chun-taek (a leading expert in lung cancer) from Bundang Seoul National University Hospital will begin seeing patients every Monday at Seongnam City Medical Center, raising public expectations.
Regarding the surge in appointment requests and inquiries for Professor Lee Chun-taek’s consultations, Mayor Shin stated, “The level of expectation citizens have for Seongnam City Medical Center is clear, and this is exactly the will of the citizens.”
During his annual visit to Seongnam City Medical Center last month, Mayor Shin showed strong determination to improve public healthcare by communicating with staff well beyond the scheduled time. He said, “As one responsible for the establishment of Seongnam City Medical Center, public hospitals must endure deficits, but what is needed is a ‘good deficit,’ not the current severe deficit.” He added, “Seongnam City plans to actively bear the resulting financial burden.”
Seongnam City supports Seongnam City Medical Center, which records an annual medical loss of 40 to 50 billion KRW, with the highest level of subsidies among local medical centers. The city contributed 26.5 billion KRW in 2022, 21.5 billion KRW in 2023, 41.3 billion KRW in 2024, and plans to contribute 48.4 billion KRW in 2025, sparing no financial support for stable operation.
Additionally, to strengthen public medical projects, the public medical project budget, which was 380 million KRW in 2022, has been increased annually and will be expanded to 840 million KRW by 2025.
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