The Miryang Public Postpartum Care Center. [Miryang City]
The Miryang Public Postpartum Care Center. [Miryang City]

The only hospital offering delivery services in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, will close after nearly four decades, leaving local mothers no option but to travel to other cities to give birth starting next month. The closure comes as the hospital can no longer recruit specialist physicians and has been unable to overcome chronic losses driven by a declining birth rate.

According to Miryang city officials Sunday, Jeil Hospital — the city's sole delivery facility — will see its last patients on Aug. 31 and shut down permanently on Sept. 1.

The hospital has relied on a director in his 70s and a single obstetrician-gynecologist in her 60s to handle deliveries and obstetric care. The specialist recently announced her resignation, and the director determined he could no longer sustain operations given his age, prompting the decision to close.

Population decline and the low birth rate compounded the financial strain. Miryang's population fell below 100,000 last year, and the number of births has consistently dropped. Annual deliveries, which once hovered around 400, fell to the 200s and then to just 107 in 2024 and 108 in 2025. This year, the hospital has averaged only eight to nine deliveries a month, running a monthly deficit of about 150 million won ($106,000).

Jeil Hospital operates four departments — obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, anesthesiology and pediatrics — and 79 beds, and has served as Miryang's delivery center for about 40 years. The city provided 1 billion won to expand the hospital's facilities and equipment in 2013 and has contributed 500 million won annually in operating subsidies since, but the support ultimately was not enough to prevent the closure.

With the city's only delivery hospital closing, Miryang plans to activate an emergency obstetric response system. Pregnant women registered at public health centers will be guided to pre-register with the 119 emergency call service, and the city will work with the Miryang Fire Department to operate seven ambulances equipped to handle deliveries.

The city will also partner with Yangsan Busan National University Hospital to establish a care network for high-risk pregnancies. The 189 pregnant women currently registered at public health centers as of last month will receive health consultations and regular monitoring, with those at 36 weeks or more to be checked at least twice a month.

Procedures are also underway to prevent a gap in operations at the Miryang Public Postpartum Care Center, which Jeil Hospital has managed under contract. The city has solicited applications for a new operator, and one local medical institution has applied and is undergoing eligibility review and contract procedures.

"We will do our utmost to ensure the emergency response system for pregnant women and newborns operates without gaps, and that the public postpartum care center continues to run without disruption," a city official said. "We will also actively pursue the Ministry of Health and Welfare's new support project for delivery-underserved areas so that residents can give birth with peace of mind."

Experts say the case is a stark illustration of the structural limits facing regional healthcare. As the low birth rate reduces the number of deliveries, the staffing and financial burden of maintaining a round-the-clock delivery service grows — and delivery-underserved areas are expanding across the country. Calls are growing for more fundamental measures to secure medical personnel and support delivery infrastructure in regional communities.


rainbow@heraldcorp.com