A photo of Greenland International Medical Center, the country's first for-profit hospital set up on Jeju Island / Courtesy of Jeju Free International City Development Center



By Kim Hyun-bin



The nation's first for-profit hospital has filed a lawsuit against the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Government for limiting its medical services to only foreign patients.



With the move, the chances of Greenland International Medical Center opening as scheduled on March 4 are getting slimmer.



According to the local government, Sunday, the investor in the hospital, the Shanghai-based Greenland Group, filed an administrative litigation suit Feb. 14, demanding the local government cancel its ban on offering treatment to Korean patients.



"On Dec. 5, 2018, the provincial government approved the operating license but its condition to limit the services to foreign patients visiting Jeju Island is illegal," the group said in its petition submitted to the Jeju District Court.



The lawsuit was expected as the hospital indicated it would take the local government to court after it received conditional operation permission in December.



The group claims there are no specific laws that justify the ban on offering services to Korean patients. In addition, it said the deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system by Korea in 2017, escalated tension with Beijing, which drastically reduced the number of Chinese visitors to Jeju, thus harming its potential patient pool.



The medical center said it would be difficult to sustain normal operations without offering services to Koreans patients.



The Jeju government says the ban is a "Maginot Line" to protect the nation's public healthcare system.



"We'll maintain this line at all costs," the local government said in a press release. "We'll form a legal experts' team to deal with the lawsuit."



It said it would highlight the concerns of civic groups and politicians that if the services are allowed for Koreans, it would lead to the polarization of medical services and a breakdown in the country's public healthcare system.



Under the Medical Services Law, the hospital is obliged to open 90 days after gaining approval from the local government ― March 4. If it fails to do so, the license can be revoked after a public hearing.



Initially, the hospital hired 134 employees as of August 2017, when it first applied for a license. But the approval was delayed for more than a year and all nine doctors resigned along with other staff. Currently, there are 60 employees including 15 nurses; and the hospital is not recruiting new staff.



If the hospital cannot open as scheduled and the license is revoked, it could file a compensation suit against the local government, separate from the current administrative one, and demand around 80 billion won in damages.

