Korea’s first for-profit hospital has failed to see daylight as the Jeju provincial government officially nullified the license to a Chinese-owned medical center due to protracted delay in the opening because of questions about its day-to-day business when it can only accept foreigners.

In a press conference held on Wednesday, Jeju Gov. Won Hee-ryong said the regional government decided to cancel the conditional business permit to Greenland International Medical Center based on the results of a hearing by a group of professionals.

The public hearing was commissioned by the provincial government set under the current medical law after the operator has missed the March deadline to specify its opening schedule or plans for any administrative actions should it decides not to go through the project.

The operator did not respond to any of its requests for meetings and negotiations, nor did it take any further actions on the idled facility, he said.

Shanghai-based Greenland Group received approval of the medical center on the southern resort island as the country`s first for-profit hospital late last year on the condition that the hospital accepts only foreign patients. The operator recently requested an extension of the March 4 deadline for the opening, while contending that it is illegal for the provincial government to ban it from treating domestic patients when it had an endorsement for broader for-profit medical operation from the central health ministry.

The governor said it was a careful decision to grant a conditional approval despite strong protests from the medical industry and residents in Jeju by taking consideration into revitalization of the local economy, fostering the medical tourism industry, and the ties between South Korea and China. Nevertheless, the Chinese medical center had shown scant signs of implementing its opening procedures required by the medical law, the governor said.

By Lee Byung-moon and Minu Kim

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