Son Hwa-jeong, mayor of Yeongjong-gu District (Mayor Son Hwa-jeong) in Incheon, took part as a panelist in the ‘Public Healthcare Revitalization Forum’ held at the Incheon YWCA on the 28th. Son argued that building a public general hospital in Yeongjong, which lacks any infrastructure for emergency and severe-case care, is a national duty that can no longer be delayed. She then presented four demands to the government, the Incheon Metropolitan Government and other relevant agencies: easing the cap on the total number of hospital beds, a commitment to build a special-purpose general hospital, an exemption from the preliminary feasibility study along with national funding, and the establishment of a public medical school.
 [The Korean Today] Yeongjong-gu Mayor Son Hwa-jeong speaking at the Public Healthcare Revitalization Forum © Reporter Kim Mi-hee |
The forum was organized by the Incheon Journalists Club and the Incheon Public Healthcare Forum and sponsored by the Incheon Metropolitan Government. It was intended to examine the current state of public healthcare in Incheon and the issues that need to be resolved, and to explore a sustainable regional healthcare system that protects citizens’ right to health. Son said a healthcare system befitting Yeongjong’s status as ‘the airport economy capital of the Republic of Korea’ is needed, and devoted most of her remarks to explaining why a public general hospital in Yeongjong is necessary.
Son first addressed the state of healthcare in Yeongjong. She said that although the city has grown rapidly and its population has increased sharply, its medical infrastructure has failed to keep pace. “Despite remarkable development and a rapid influx of population, Yeongjong has no medical infrastructure whatsoever capable of performing emergency surgery or treating severe illnesses,” she said.
She also described the emergencies residents face in concrete terms. “Although Incheon’s Yeongjong is an international city and a gateway connecting the world with the Republic of Korea, it does not have a single large general hospital with an emergency room,” Son said. “Even when a critical patient emerges for whom every minute and second of the golden hour counts, they must repeatedly cross the bridge and travel to hospitals on the mainland tens of kilometers away,” she noted. This means residents of Yeongjong, an island area, bear the added burden of distance and time whenever an emergency occurs.
Son did not limit the problem to inconvenience for local residents. She repeatedly stressed that under the current system, it would be difficult to respond quickly and appropriately if a new infectious disease such as COVID-19 entered the country from abroad or a major aviation disaster occurred. “The medical gap in Yeongjong goes beyond a simple regional issue; it creates a fatal hole in the nation’s disease control network and security,” she said. “It is now time to move away from the heartless economic logic of ‘low profitability’ and take a more forward-looking approach.” Her point was that the establishment of a hospital should not be judged on profitability alone.
The first of the four demands presented that day concerned bed regulations. “Please ease the cap on the total number of hospital beds to reflect Yeongjong’s geographical particularities,” Son said. She explained that rather than applying the same bed cap as other regions to a strategic hub for national security that is home to Incheon Airport, an exception should be recognized.
 [The Korean Today] Scene from the Public Healthcare Revitalization Forum © Reporter Kim Mi-hee |
Second, she called on the government to make a clear decision. “Please make a policy decision right away and clearly commit to the swift construction of a ‘special-purpose general hospital,’ which is essential for national security,” Son said. She again stressed that building a public general hospital to fill the region’s medical gap is an urgent task that the government and local authorities can no longer put off.
The third demand concerned procedures and funding. “To build a general hospital quickly, an exemption from the preliminary feasibility study and bold national funding must be decided,” Son argued. Because a public hospital in Yeongjong is security infrastructure the nation needs and a minimum safety net protecting Yeongjong residents’ right to life, administrative procedures should be greatly streamlined and sufficient national funding provided, she said. The request to waive the preliminary feasibility study, which largely determines the timeline of large public facility projects, reflects an intention to bring forward the construction schedule.
The fourth was a proposal on medical personnel. “The establishment of a ‘public medical school’ to train dedicated personnel and conduct research should be considered as a top priority in Yeongjong, the front line against the inflow of overseas infectious diseases and the heart of national health security,” Son said. In her view, establishing a new public medical school and building a linked system with an affiliated general hospital is the only way to resolve this long-standing problem. In effect, she went beyond constructing a hospital building to also propose how to secure the medical staff who would work there.
Wrapping up her remarks, Son said, “It is now time to complete a concrete roadmap for building a public hospital and to rally everyone’s will so that Incheon’s Yeongjong can have a healthcare system befitting its status as the airport economy capital of the Republic of Korea.” She added, “Until the day proper medical infrastructure is in the hands of Yeongjong residents, we will concentrate all of the district administration’s capabilities on this.”
The remarks are significant in that they turned the emergency and severe-care gap long experienced by Yeongjong residents into concrete demands at a public forum on Incheon’s public healthcare. With multiple issues raised at once, from bed regulations and project procedures to funding and workforce training, how the government and the Incheon Metropolitan Government respond, and how far the construction roadmap takes concrete shape, is expected to set the direction of discussions on a public general hospital in Yeongjong.
[ Reporter Kim Mi-hee: incheonsouth@thekoreantoday.com ]
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