The last remaining maternity hospital in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, is set to close next month after 40 years of serving the local community, raising concerns that the collapse of regional maternity care could further accelerate the decline of the nation’s provincial areas. Annual deliveries in Miryang plunge from 400 to 100 Opened in 1986, Miryang Jeil Hospital has been one of the largest hospitals in the region, with 79 beds and departments of obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and internal medicine. It has handled more than 20,000 deliveries since it opened. In recent years, however, the medical staff operating the hospital’s delivery unit dwindled to just two doctors: the hospital’s director, who is in his 70s, and an obstetrician in his 60s. When the obstetrician announced his intention to leave the hospital, the director decided he had no choice but to close the hospital. The hospital was already in a precarious financial position due to the nation’s low birthrate. As Miryang’s population fell below the 100,000 mark for the first time last year, the number of