Concentration of Clinics

“Hospitals cluster, too.”

According to a survey conducted by the Health Insurance Review Agency commissioned by this paper, clinics (referring to as primary medical institutions with fewer than 20 beds) are found to be disproportionately concentrated in Seoul’s three gus (administrative units), namely, Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa in 20 areas of medicine including internal, surgical, and obstetrics and gynecology (excluding tuberculosis and nuclear medicine among the entire 22 medical sub-areas) between 2002 and 2006.

Last year, Gangnam-gu accounted for 3.6 percent of the total clinics, or 920 out of 25,789, nationwide followed by Songpa with 391, and Seocho with 380 (about 1.5 percent, respectively). The three areas make up 6.6 percent, or about six in every 100 clinics.

The Concentration Phenomenon-

A percentage of 4.6, or 432 of the total 9,433 hospitals in the three areas, were hospitals covering five major medical specialties including internal, surgical, obstetrics and gynecology, and children’s and family medicine.

In particular, recently emerging doctors such as psychiatrists, plastic surgeons, dermatologists, and anesthetists tended to open clinics in areas south of the Han River.

Among the 629 total hospitals specializing in cosmetic surgery, 183, or 29 percent, were located in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, where nine percent of the skin clinics nationwide, or 77 out of the 838, are also found to be geographically concentrated.

In stark contrast, there are many areas that have no medical specialists at all. Six areas (such as Ongjin-gun in Incheon, Inje-gun in Goseong, Gangwon Province, Danyang-gun in North Chungcheong Province, and Ulleung-gun in Yeongyang in North Gyeongsang Province) are known to have no specialists in five major medical areas such as internal, surgical, children’s, obstetrics, and family care.

Ulleung-gun in North Gyeongsang Province was found to be the most marginalized area in terms of medical service as there is no clinic whatsoever. In addition, there are 50 villages without obstetrics clinics included Gangseo-gu in Busan, Yeoncheon-gun in Gyeonggi, Yangyang-gun in Gangwon, Cheongwon-gun in North Chungcheong, and Cheongyang-gun in South Chungcheong.

Meanwhile, with respect to the number of obstetrics clinics, Gangnam, Songpa, and Gwanak-gus ranked first (54), second (33), and third (27), respectively. The survey also learned that Gangdong-gu had the most orthopedic surgeons (30) followed by Gangseo-gu (29) in Korea.

With regard to the number of children’s hospitals, Nowon (39), Songpa (36), and Gwanak (35) ranked first, second, and third. Such analyses provide doctors with information on where to open their clinics, as well as creating a big picture of the current Korean medical industry.

likeday@donga.com