The government will lift wage caps at national university hospitals to develop them as hubs for regional and essential medical care, securing specialists at levels comparable to the country's "Big 5" hospitals. The strategy aims to narrow the wage gap with private hospitals and ease the medical care disparity between the Seoul metropolitan area and other regions.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and the Ministry of Education announced the "Comprehensive Development Plan for National University Hospitals to Strengthen Regional and Essential Medical Care" containing these measures at Chungnam National University Hospital in Daejeon on Wednesday. In particular, the government will pursue removing national university hospitals from their designation as miscellaneous public institutions to ease wage regulations and continue expanding full-time faculty. The plan envisions increasing the number of specialists per bed at regional national university hospitals from the current 2.3 per 10 beds to 4.3 per 10 beds, the level of Big 5 hospitals.
The government will also strengthen capabilities using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In the short term, it will support the introduction of AI-based treatment systems used in the private sector to assist with diagnosis and provide real-time monitoring. Over the medium to long term, it will push to build a next-generation hospital information system incorporating AI. Under this approach, AI would comprehensively analyze patients' medical records, test results, and imaging data to establish optimal diagnoses and treatment plans.
The government will also support specialized development that considers regional medical demand and the strengths of each hospital. Representative specialized fields will be selected and intensively supported—for example, the southeastern region, where industrial complexes are concentrated, will focus on trauma and rehabilitation.
The government will also promote research into severe and rare intractable diseases and medical technology innovation at national university hospitals. It will help establish core research equipment and secure specialized research support personnel to strengthen research capabilities, and will expand the industry-academia-research-hospital cooperative research and development (R&D) budget so hospitals can jointly participate with regional industries, universities, and research institutions.
The government will increase the participation of regional national university hospitals in existing health and medical R&D support projects, and establish a virtuous cycle that goes beyond research funding to accumulating research experience, training research personnel, and building industry-academia-research-hospital cooperation networks.
The government will also support national university hospitals in becoming key educational institutions for training regional essential medical care talent, including under the regional doctor system. It will raise the allocation rate to regional national university hospitals from about 17.8% of resident quotas to more than 20%, and build clinical education and training centers to provide advanced simulation-based education and programs. At the same time, education programs for supervising specialists who oversee resident training will be operated primarily at national university hospitals.
To stably establish the regional doctor system, the government will provide support throughout the entire cycle—from the student stage through resident training to specialist settlement—together with local governments and universities. It will also pursue customized curricula and clinical practice programs to strengthen the essential medical care capabilities of regional doctors, along with settlement support.
By helping national university hospitals plan and operate collaborative training programs within their regions and expanding collaborative training courses linked with various medical institutions such as regional secondary hospitals and specialty hospitals, the government plans to enable residents to gain experience with a wide range of patient groups, from severe and emergency patients to community patients.
