YANGJU — The city of Yangju has called on Gyeonggi Province to accelerate construction of a public hospital to close a severe gap in essential medical care in the province's northeastern region.
Yangju Mayor Chung Duck-young met with Gyeonggi Governor Choo Mi-ae at the provincial government office on Sept. 16 and formally proposed 10 regional projects and requests for provincial funding, including faster progress on the Northeastern Gyeonggi Public Hospital.
Northeastern Gyeonggi, which includes Yangju, Dongducheon and Yeoncheon, has no general hospital, leaving emergency and critically ill patients to be transferred to other regions. Only 7.8% of Yangju residents needing hospital-level care or higher are treated within the city, and the region needs at least 1,218 additional hospital beds, pointing to a serious supply-demand imbalance.
Demand for essential care at night and on holidays — including pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, delivery services and 24-hour emergency rooms — has risen sharply as the population has grown with move-ins at large new towns such as Okjeong and Hoecheon.
Once built, the public hospital would serve as a regional medical hub covering Yangju as well as Dongducheon, Yeoncheon and Pocheon. It would help secure the golden hour for emergency and trauma patients and, given the area's location near the inter-Korean border, could form an integrated medical safety net serving both soldiers and civilians.
The project also draws favorable assessments on feasibility grounds. The candidate site, a medical facility plot in Okjeong-dong, allows for straightforward land acquisition and permit procedures, which could move up the groundbreaking date substantially. It would also allow the region to prepare in advance for demand from industrial accident and trauma patients as the Yangju Techno Valley and the Eunnam General Industrial Complex are developed.
Beyond the hospital, Yangju asked Gyeonggi Province for active support in expanding road, transit and utility infrastructure. Its requests included raising provincial subsidy rates to more realistic levels, widening city road No. 30 (Bangseong–Sanbuk) and city road No. 6 (Gwangsa–Mansong), placing power lines underground in Samsung-dong, moving up work on a bypass road along provincial road No. 360 between Yeongok and Bangseong, and adding city bus service in the Okjeong and Hoecheon new towns.
"The Northeastern Gyeonggi Public Hospital is core infrastructure that protects the lifeline of local residents and soldiers," Chung said. "We will strengthen cooperation with Gyeonggi Province so that medical and transportation infrastructure can be expanded in a timely manner in step with our rapidly growing population."
