National university hospitals and national university dental hospitals will come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Welfare instead of the Ministry of Education starting Aug. 20. The administrative overhaul aims to transform regional national university hospitals from simple clinical and teaching institutions into anchor hospitals that carry out regional and essential healthcare policy. Seoul National University Hospital, however, is governed by a separate law — the Seoul National University Hospital Establishment Act — and is excluded from the transfer.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Tuesday that the Cabinet approved amendments to the enforcement decrees of the National University Hospital Establishment Act and the National University Dental Hospital Establishment Act.
The core of the amendments is to align the body that oversees national university hospitals with the body that sets healthcare policy. Until now, national university hospitals were expected to serve as pillars of regional public healthcare, yet the Education Ministry held supervisory authority while the Health and Welfare Ministry handled regional and essential medical policy.
The disconnect had long been flagged as a structural obstacle: the Health and Welfare Ministry was driving policies to designate national university hospitals as regionally responsible medical institutions and build cooperative networks with local providers, while actual management authority remained with the Education Ministry.
Discussions about transferring national university hospitals to the Health and Welfare Ministry gained momentum in October 2023, when the government unveiled its "Essential Healthcare Innovation Strategy." At the time, the government proposed developing regional national university hospitals into essential care hubs for critical and emergency patients, amid growing concern that patients and medical personnel were concentrating in large hospitals in the greater Seoul area.
In June, the government announced through its "National University Hospital Development Plan" that it would build a system centered on national university hospitals to coordinate patient referrals and transfers among regional medical institutions and enable the shared use of personnel and medical resources.
The government said it would expand support for specialists, facilities and equipment so that regional national university hospitals can treat serious conditions — including cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and emergency cases — locally. It also said it would strengthen their role as a control tower coordinating cooperation among regional medical institutions.
Regional national university hospitals currently have around 2.3 specialists per 10 beds, far below the roughly 4.3 specialists per 10 beds at major hospitals in Seoul. The government plans to expand the medical workforce in tandem to close that gap.
To address concerns that the transfer could weaken the education and research functions of national university hospitals, the amendments explicitly require that the autonomy of the hospitals as educational institutions be taken into account. The government also said it intends to expand investment in clinical education and research alongside clinical care, reinforcing a virtuous cycle of education, research and treatment.
Under the amended enforcement decrees, key operational documents — including management plans submitted during the hospital director nomination process, requests and payment applications for contributions and subsidies, and project plans — will now go to the minister of health and welfare instead of the minister of education.
The amendments also establish a legal basis allowing hospitals to set up organizational units beyond those specified in existing statutes, through their own articles of incorporation, so they can respond more flexibly to changes in the healthcare environment.
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