Ulsan pushes to build self-sufficient essential medical system

Ulsan is accelerating efforts to build a self-sufficient essential medical system that would allow residents to receive top-level care within the golden hour without leaving the city.

Ulsan Mayor Kim Sang-uk attended a forum on transforming regional, essential and public medical services at Cheong Wa Dae's banquet hall Wednesday afternoon, where he discussed healthcare innovation with government ministries including the Ministry of Health and Welfare. He called on the government to exempt the proposed Ulsan Medical Center from a preliminary feasibility study and provide national funding for its construction.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare organized the forum, which President Lee Jae Myung presided over. It was convened to gather on-the-ground opinions and build policy consensus ahead of a major overhaul of regional, essential and public medical services.

About 100 people attended, including Kim, Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo and South Jeolla Province-Gwangju Special Integrated City Mayor Min Hyeong-bae, along with the ministers of Education, Science and ICT, Interior and Safety, Health and Welfare, and Economy and Finance, as well as frontline medical workers, representatives of healthcare and patient organizations, and AI experts.

The forum opened with presentations by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on its regional and essential public healthcare strategy and by the AI Strategy Committee on an AI-based primary care strategy centered on public hospitals, followed by open discussion among participants.

Kim said Ulsan, as South Korea's industrial capital, has contributed greatly to national development, yet remains the worst-served city in the country for public healthcare — lacking both a national university medical school and a public hospital. He urged the government to waive the preliminary feasibility requirement for the Ulsan Medical Center and provide national funding for its construction.

He also called on the government to revise the criteria for its special regional essential healthcare budget so that allocations reflect actual healthcare vulnerability and local medical demand rather than existing medical infrastructure, ensuring Ulsan is not left out of government support.

The Ulsan Medical Center is planned for a site within the North Ulsan transit-oriented development zone, but two hurdles must be cleared first: lifting the greenbelt designation on the planned site and passing a preliminary feasibility study. A 500-bed version of the project failed the preliminary feasibility review in 2023 on economic viability grounds.

Ulsan has since been preparing for the project in line with President Lee's campaign pledge to build a children's treatment-specialized Ulsan Medical Center, completing a feasibility study and basic planning commission for the children's-care-focused facility.

The city plans to use the forum as a springboard to deepen cooperation with the central government and accelerate the construction of a regional essential healthcare safety net so residents can access medical services with confidence.