Large-Sized Hospitals in Competition

Large-sized hospitals have competed to increase their size.

According to the medical world on January 15, the large-sized hospitals such as Yonsei University Medical Center, Kangnam St. Mary`s Hospital and Korea University Guro Medical Center plan to build a new hospital and extend the old hospital with a large volume of budgets.

Large-sized hospitals made such a construction and extension plan to admit more patients as patients evade the small & medium hospitals and prefer to the large-sized hospitals.

As it is known that popular foreign hospitals will come to Korea, they have come to a crisis of uncertain survival against an opening of the medical market in 2006.

The medical world worried that volume increase of the hospital would get serious. Also, it worried that the small & medium sized hospitals may be bankrupted because the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Korea University Guro Medical Center will commence on the construction of new hospital of four floors underground and six floors above the ground with total budgets of 33.5 billion won in March. When the hospital is completed next December, total beds of the hospital will increase to 1,000 beds in number.

Yonsei University Medical Center has constructed the new Shinchon Severance Hospital aiming at the complete construction of next December. After the construction is completed, total beds will increase to 2500 beds in number. Also, an outbuilding of Yeongdong Severance Hospital will be constructed soon.

Kangnam St. Mary`s Hospital made the long term plan to construct new two hospitals of 400∼500 beds and 500∼600 beds respectively until 2010. It will build one hospital and its supplementary facilities with 80 billion won ∼90 billion won.

Samsung Seoul Medical Center has been under investigation for details of the hospital extension of seven floors underground and eleven floors above ground. Gil Medical Center also has been investigating the construction of new hospital in Bucheon-si Gyeonggi-do.

Asan Medical Center has been constructing the educational research institute of five floors underground and none floors above the ground from last year. Seoul National University Medical Center has executed the partial construction of children`s hospital.

Kyung Hee Medical Center has been constructing the second medical center in Sangil-dong Gangdong-gu Seoul, and Chung Ang University Medical Center has been constructed the new hospital in Heukseok-dong Dongjak-gu Seoul.

It is commented that such the extension of the hospital will be linked to a bankruptcy of the secondary medical center, and patients will finally suffer from pains.

The official of `H` hospital said, “Because there is no secondary medical center, emergent patients will go to the large-sized hospital, but they will have to wait for a first-aid for several hours.”

Experts worried that the extension competition will cause the financial deterioration and hospital insolvency in the actual situation which most of large-sized hospitals have shown a loss.”

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