The National Medical Center (NMC) unveiled a blueprint to build a core hub integrating essential national medical functions — including infectious disease response, emergency care, trauma treatment, and disaster medicine — through its planned 2030 relocation to a new facility and the construction of a central infectious disease hospital.
NMC President Seo Gil-jun held a press conference marking his first anniversary in office at the medical center in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the 23rd. "As the nation's central hospital, I have been solidifying the institution's competitiveness and execution capability to strengthen its role as a 'national public health and medical platform' encompassing clinical care, policy support, and research and education," he said.
According to the announcement, the NMC's main hospital (526 beds), a central infectious disease hospital (150 beds), and a trauma center (100 beds) — totaling 776 beds — will be newly constructed in Bangsan-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, by 2030. That represents a 55.5% increase from the current 499 beds. In preparation for the new hospital's opening, the center is also developing an artificial intelligence and cloud-based Hospital Information System (HIS) for public medical institutions. The system will be applied to the NMC and two regional public hospitals next year before being rolled out to public hospitals nationwide.
With the crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government-physician conflict now behind it, the NMC is focusing on strengthening its role as a control tower for regional, essential, and public medical policy, centered on its Public Health and Medical Affairs Division. To bolster staffing in these areas, the center is improving specialized training programs and dispatch and rotation systems while expanding its senior physician program.
Leveraging the 500 billion won ($363 million) donation made by the bereaved family of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee during COVID-19, the NMC plans to build a "medical resource information system" in conjunction with the central infectious disease hospital construction. It also aims to define the functions and roles among central and regional infectious disease specialty hospitals and local infectious disease management agencies according to disease type and crisis level, thereby strengthening response capabilities. In emergency medical services, the center will reinforce an integrated management system for transporting and transferring critically ill emergency patients through the metropolitan emergency medical operations center.
Seo, a former emergency medicine professor at Seoul National University Hospital, commented on the pilot program for reforming emergency patient transport currently underway in the Honam region. "Contrary to initial concerns, the selection of receiving hospitals has been proceeding smoothly in most cases," he said, adding that "only one to two cases per day are being coordinated by the metropolitan emergency medical operations center." The expansion of the program is expected to depend on the pilot's results.
Having solidified its foundation as the nation's central hospital and achieved qualitative growth over the past year, the NMC plans to focus during the remainder of Seo's term on strengthening execution of regional, essential, and public medical policy through the new facility relocation and infectious disease hospital construction. According to Seo, patient volume and medical revenue as of January this year increased approximately 30% from a year earlier. With about one-quarter of all care provided to vulnerable populations including medical aid recipients, the center assessed that it is fulfilling its role as a public medical safety net.
"Under the mission of being the 'nation's central hospital that protects the healthy future of the people,' we will faithfully carry out our role as a national public health and medical platform encompassing clinical care, policy support, and education and research, and establish ourselves as an institution trusted by the public," Seo emphasized.
Regarding the National Medical Graduate School Establishment and Operation Act, which recently passed the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, Seo was circumspect. "It is true that the medical center must prepare for its role as a central pillar of medical student education," he said, "but nothing has been officially confirmed, including the location of the graduate school campus, so there is nothing to disclose at this point."
Under the act, the National Medical Graduate School may designate the NMC and regional public hospitals as institutions for education and clinical training. The Ministry of Health and Welfare may also delegate all or part of related duties, including the placement of mandatory service personnel, to the NMC.