South Korea's Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has secured only 34% of the 3,547-bed critical-care target for 2027 set to prepare for a new infectious disease pandemic, while separately cutting its emergency care bed goal nearly in half, from 1,700 to 900, without disclosing the change.
Data submitted by the KDCA to Rep. Baek Sun-hee of the Rebuilding Korea Party, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, showed that 1,208 beds have been secured out of the 3,547 critical-care beds for infectious diseases the government had planned to have in place by 2027, or 34.1% of the target. The full opening of regional infectious disease hospitals, the core facilities in the country's epidemic response, has also been pushed back to 2034, a decade later than originally planned.
The bed expansion program ran into trouble at the budget stage. The KDCA requested 10 billion won ($7 million) for 2025 and 1.2 billion won for 2026 to expand state-designated inpatient treatment beds, but neither request was reflected in the government's budget proposals. With no funding, no new beds were built. Even for emergency care beds that had already been funded, 360 beds were voluntarily withdrawn because of weak participation by hospitals and their financial difficulties.
As the program faltered, the KDCA cut its emergency care bed target to 900 from 1,700 in April 2024 through an internal approval process at the Central Disaster Management Headquarters. The revised figure was not included in its "Plan to Upgrade the Infectious Disease Crisis Management System," released in June this year.
Stockpiles of protective supplies are also in trouble. These are items such as masks, protective suits and medical gloves kept in reserve to prevent infection among medical staff and response personnel during an outbreak. The KDCA has secured 16.27 million items, or 58.8% of its 2029 target of 27.67 million. Of those, 15.57 million items, or 95.7%, will pass their expiration dates by 2028. Without measures such as rotating the stockpile, large-scale disposal and wasted budget will be unavoidable, critics say.
"Cutting bed targets through internal procedures alone, without a clear explanation, and withholding key indicators undermines confidence in the country's epidemic preparedness system," Baek said. "A comprehensive plan must be drawn up quickly, including measures for expiring supplies and a realistic plan for securing beds."