Kim Yoon, a member of the Democratic Party, urged national university hospitals to establish strong connections with local facilities during the first National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee audit since the hospitals were transferred from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. He emphasized that these hospitals should become the backbone of a 'regional essential healthcare cooperation network.'
During the audit held on October 8, ten national university hospitals presented their operational status and discussed plans to expand essential medical services. The Lee Jae-myung administration has pledged to develop these hospitals to the level of the 'Big 5' in the Seoul metropolitan area, a project referred to as 'creating ten Seoul National University hospitals' to establish a comprehensive regional healthcare system.
Hospital directors expressed concerns about the impact of the ongoing medical dispute, including the loss of residents, significant debt, and aging facilities. However, Kim Yoon stressed the need to focus on building a 'regional medical linkage network' rather than merely providing financial support or developing individual hospitals.
He stated, 'Simply operating national university hospitals well will not resolve the current collapse of essential healthcare in the region. It is crucial for these hospitals to closely collaborate with local facilities to transform into a vast network responsible for essential healthcare in the area.'
Kim criticized the complacency of both the Health Ministry and the national university hospitals. He noted, 'There is a complete lack of specific plans on how to establish an essential healthcare network in the proposals from the Health Ministry or the hospitals' reports. Among the reports submitted today, only Busan National University Hospital included relevant content, indicating that both the ministry and the hospitals lack ideas.'
Despite the urgent need for local governments to prepare budgets for essential healthcare plans by the end of the year, there is no clear blueprint from the national university hospitals or the relevant ministry.
In response, Son Young-rae, head of the Health Ministry's Regional Essential Public Health Office, stated, 'We are working to clarify the system through guidelines that bring together local governments and national university hospitals to analyze regional issues and discuss how to allocate essential accounting budgets.' He added, 'We will establish and share the process as quickly as possible.'
Kim Hae-young, director of Busan National University Hospital, remarked, 'While the regional cooperation network project is very important, simply hiring essential healthcare physicians with high salaries would lead to a 'zero-sum game' by poaching professors from other local university hospitals. Given the absolute shortage of medical personnel in the region, a single hospital cannot handle everything alone. Therefore, national university hospitals must be empowered and funded to lead local medical resources for true collaboration with regional hospitals.'
* This article has been translated by AI.
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