A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that at a meeting of heads of all provincial party and administrative bodies, the party committee of North Hamgyong Province adopted a “party decision” regarding the construction of a specialized clinic complex in Saebyol County.
He said the meeting commenced preparations, tasking local factories and enterprises with construction efforts.
According to the source, the North Hamgyong Province party committee announced plans on Dec. 10 to construct the clinics in several valleys in Saebyol County. Preparation work will continue until the end of February, with construction to begin when the weather starts to warm up in March.
The provincial party committee’s plan calls for the creation of a specialized general clinic complex. It has selected the location of each clinic, with tuberculosis and hepatitis clinics in one valley, a central clinic in another valley, and Clinic No. 49 — which deals with psychiatric disorders — in another valley.
The party committee also promised to provide provincial residents with top class facilities, expanding a clinic for skin diseases and building outpatient and inpatient wings for each clinic.
The provincial party committee also declared it would equip the new facility with specialized doctors and technology, turning the clinic into a nationally renowned medical facility that is even more popular than the hospital of Hamhung Medical University, North Korea’s finest facility for orthopedic surgery.
The provincial party committee also told officials that it has already reported to the Central Committee its resolve to enable residents of North Hamgyong Province to enjoy the best “people’s health” services through the clinics.
The party committee said even though local livelihoods are tough due to COVID-19 and the project faces several difficulties, including supplies, preparations should begin from now.
However, officials and local residents have expressed widespread disapproval of the provincial party committee’s announcement. The source said locals shudder at the plan to build the clinic, saying they wish the authorities ran existing hospitals better and for clinics to provide friendlier service instead.
The source said locals complain that building more hospitals that lack medications or treatments is useless, and that existing hospitals are basically inns with insensitive doctors. The state will not build the facility for them, they say, but will build it by placing more burdens on provincial residents who are already struggling due to a lack of food and firewood.
