The number of medical institutions capable of delivering babies is rapidly declining. Over the past five years, such facilities have decreased by 26.4 percent.

According to an analysis of data submitted by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and the National Health Insurance Service to Rep. Jang Jong-tae of the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of obstetrics and gynecology departments with delivery records decreased by 26.4 percent, or 125 facilities, from 2020 to June 2025.

This represents a much steeper decline compared to the overall decrease of 53 obstetrics and gynecology departments (3.9 percent) nationwide during the same period.

Regional disparities are even more pronounced. A comprehensive analysis of delivery facilities across 250 cities, counties, and districts nationwide, based on data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, revealed that as of June, 77 areas (30.8 percent) had no medical institutions capable of delivering babies.

Additionally, 60 areas (24.0 percent) were at risk of becoming delivery-vulnerable zones immediately if their sole delivery room were to close. While 60 regions lacked delivery facilities in 2020, an additional 17 regions lost their delivery rooms over the past five years.

To prevent the collapse of delivery infrastructure, the government significantly raised delivery fees starting in late 2023 by introducing regional and safety policy fees. As a result, although the number of delivery patients decreased by 12.6 percent from 270,000 in 2020 to 236,000 in 2024, total delivery-related medical expenses increased by 24.9 percent from 561.8 billion won ($403 million) to 701.5 billion won. Per-patient medical expenses surged by 42.8 percent, from 2.08 million won to 2.97 million won.

“These statistics clearly show how severe the collapse of essential medical services is in regions outside the capital area and major cities, and also reveal the limitation that the government's countermeasures are stuck at merely injecting funds,” Rep. Jang said.

He pointed out that simply raising fees only slows the collapse of existing infrastructure; it cannot bring back medical staff who have left delivery rooms on the verge of disappearing.

“A paradigm shift is needed to prepare extraordinary measures for securing essential local medical personnel, such as considering ‘public obstetrics and gynecology’ linked with local public postpartum care centers for areas vulnerable to childbirth shortages,” Jang added.