The transfer of supervisory authority over regional national university hospitals from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Health and Welfare will be completed Thursday — 21 years after the debate first began in 2005. The hospitals will now receive concentrated support as primary hubs for regional and essential medical care under a "five poles, three specialties" framework.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced Tuesday that amendments to the National University Hospital Establishment Act and the National University Dental Hospital Establishment Act will take effect Thursday, formally shifting oversight of national university hospitals and dental hospitals from the Education Ministry to the Health and Welfare Ministry.
With the transfer complete, the ministry plans to strengthen the clinical, research, education and public policy functions of national university hospitals.
As a first step, the ministry will draw on the comprehensive development plan for national university hospitals — announced in June to bolster regional, essential and public healthcare — to support the hospitals in treating serious conditions such as cancer locally and building the capacity to serve as the final point of care for critical and emergency cases.
The hospitals are also set to take on a stronger role as core educational institutions for training specialists in rare and intractable diseases and regional essential medicine, and to serve as regional control towers coordinating cooperation among local medical institutions.
To realize this development vision, the ministry will also gradually expand fiscal support for national university hospitals.
On the clinical side, the ministry will support the recruitment of staff for essential medical departments and strengthen compensation for long-serving personnel. To expand the workforce in essential fields such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and thoracic surgery, more than 460 full-time faculty positions will be added at national university hospitals over four years.
Specialty areas will be selected and supported based on regional healthcare demand and the strengths of each hospital, reinforcing the foundation for local residents to receive the care they need without traveling to the Greater Seoul area.
In research, the ministry will link clinical data across all national university hospitals and the National Cancer Center to build a dataset on par with that of major hospitals in the Greater Seoul area, while also strengthening research and development support tailored to each regional national university hospital to expand core research infrastructure and specialized research personnel.
In education, clinical education and training centers will be established at every national university hospital to provide medical students, residents and healthcare professionals with advanced simulation-based skills training. Regional physician support centers will also be set up around national university hospitals to provide systematic support — from education and training to long-term settlement — for regional medical personnel.
Alongside the fiscal investment, the ministry will pursue institutional reforms to enhance the competitiveness of national university hospitals and their accountability for regional essential healthcare.
To allow national university hospitals to recruit top medical talent flexibly and operate with greater autonomy, the ministry will work with relevant agencies to pursue removal of the hospitals from their public institution designation. Hospital directors will also be appointed as co-chairs of provincial essential healthcare committees, enabling them to coordinate regional essential healthcare issues.
"This transfer marks a new starting point for the Health and Welfare Ministry, as the specialized ministry for healthcare, to properly develop national university hospitals into the central institutions of the five-poles, three-specialties framework," said Lee Hyeong-hun, second vice minister of health and welfare. "We will support national university hospitals in growing into institutions that take responsibility for the final treatment of critical and essential medical cases, train outstanding medical professionals and conduct research into future medical technology."
thlee@heraldcorp.com
