70% of organ transplant operations are in the Seoul metropolitan area...Healthcare infrastructure gaps between regions ↑
Oct 22, 2025
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According to data submitted by Rep. Seo Mi-hwa (Democratic Party of Korea), a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, from the Korea Organ Organization Donation Institute and the National Organization Blood Management Institute, a total of 12,386 people were estimated to have died of brain death as potential organ donors in the past five years (2020-2024). By region, ▲ Seoul was 24.3% (3008), ▲ Gyeonggi 21% (2,598), ▲ Busan 8.9% (1100), and ▲ Incheon 6.1% (758), which were generally proportional to the size of the population.
However, about 70% (5201) of a total of 7,515 organ transplants conducted during the same period were conducted in the metropolitan area. By region, ▲ Seoul 54.3% (4079 people), ▲ Gyeonggi 11.4% (859), ▲ Gyeongnam 7.2% (541 people), ▲ Busan 6.8% (510 people), ▲ Daegu 5.7% (428 people), and ▲ Incheon 3.5% (263 people). In particular, 0% (0 patients) in Gyeongsangbuk-do and 0.1% (5 patients) in Jeollanam-do showed no organ transplant surgery.
This concentration is due to the concentration of large hospitals and professional medical staff capable of organ transplant surgery in the metropolitan area. Organ transplant surgery requires multidisciplinary cooperation teams such as surgeons and transplant coordinators, but even if local hospitals do not have enough transplant teams and emergency surgery systems, the actual transplant surgery is fixed at large hospitals in the metropolitan area.
In fact, even if there are people who want to donate brain-dead organs in the provinces, medical staff from medical institutions in the metropolitan area often go down to the provinces, remove organs, and then return to hospitals in the metropolitan area to perform organ transplantation. In this process, the burden of time and cost increases, and the speed and efficiency of organ transplantation are inevitably reduced.
Lee Kwang-woong, President of the Korean Liver Transplantation Society (SNU Hospital Surgery Professor), said "In order to revitalize organ transplantation, the government needs a project to construct an organ extraction and transfer network"The way medical staff extract organs from and from the region is exhausting."
Lawmaker Seo Mi-hwa said, `Even organ transplant surgery where every minute is important is concentrated in the metropolitan area due to the lack of medical infrastructure in the provinces""The government should come up with effective measures to promote organ donation, such as expanding local medical infrastructure and providing incentives to medical institutions and medical personnel."," he stressed.
Reporter Kim So-hyung compact@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
