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Korea to break ground for first infectious diseases hospital
Chosun University Hospital / Courtesy of Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency
By Jun Ji-hye
5 more to be built across country to serve as control towers in case of public health emergencies
The country will start construction of its first-ever special medical facility treating patients with infectious diseases at Chosun University Hospital in Gwangju within the first half of the year, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced, Thursday.
The estimated completion date is October 2026, and the new hospital will embrace patients from the southwestern city as well as the surrounding region's South and North Jeolla provinces.
The government has designated six locations to construct such special hospitals to boost the country’s capabilities in the field of infection prevention and control, as public health emergencies, such as the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, raised the need for more concerted efforts to address public health challenges.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare, for its part, is working to construct an infectious diseases hospital at the National Medical Center in Seoul, while the KDCA has been pushing to build five more across the country, including the one for the southwestern region.
The KDCA will continue to construct four more special hospitals at Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital for the Chungcheong region, at Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital for the South Gyeongsang region, at Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital for the North Gyeongsang region and at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital for Seoul’s surrounding region.
The new hospitals will focus on treating seriously ill patients with infectious diseases in case of public health emergencies and serve as control towers for medical responses in their respective regions.
At ordinary times, the hospitals will offer testing, diagnosis and treatment for infectious diseases as well as relevant education for medical personnel.
Construction of the new medical facility for the southwest region was decided in August 2017 following the 2015 MERS outbreak.
A state budget of 58.2 billion won ($44 million) in addition to Chosun University Hospital’s own budget of 19.9 billion won will be invested to construct a building with seven stories aboveground and two underground levels on a 13,000-square-meter site.
The new hospital will have 98 beds, including 36 negative pressure isolation rooms, and will be equipped with CT scanners, negative pressure operating rooms and a biosafety level 3 (BL-3) laboratory used to study infectious agents or toxins that may cause potentially lethal infections.
A KDCA official noted that difficulties in securing necessary funding have arisen since construction plans were finalized in 2017, due to inflation and a complicated deliberation process involving the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Public Procurement Service.
But the social consensus over the need for a hospital specialized in infectious diseases grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, and related parties have since cooperated more keenly to accelerate the plans.
“Beginning with construction of the first infectious diseases hospital, we will push to construct four more without a hitch to protect the people in case of a future pandemic,” said Jee Young-mee, commissioner of the KDCA.