The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would push for a revision of the medical law to mandate a certain proportion of intensive care units (ICUs) to be single-person rooms, instead of multi-person rooms.

Korea has 9,190 ICUs at 167 medical institutions with more than 300 hospital beds, and 76 percent of them, or 6,979 ICUs, are multi-person rooms. 

On Feb. 9, Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the People Power Party asked the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee whether the government needed to shift the structure of ICUs to single-person ones. 

In reply, the health and welfare ministry said that the change was necessary because critically ill patients have a high risk of death due to hospital infection. To efficiently respond to infectious diseases, it was necessary to change the structure of ICUs to single-person rooms gradually, the ministry said. 

The ministry said it would seek to revise the Medical Service Act to mandate large medical institutions to install a certain percentage of ICU beds as single rooms. Also, the government will review supporting the costs for installations and improving inpatient care incentives, it said. 

More specifically, the government plans to cover 50 percent of the installation cost for a total of 1,700 beds including 600 sever, 800 semi-severe, and 300 special/emergency beds.