this and other pressures on the clinics in the korean health care system have resulted in an increase in the closure rate up from around in to in this is compared to a closure rate among hospitals and underscores the additional level of financial difficulty faced by clinics cho these statistics exclude dentistry and oriental medicine clinics these challenges are only likely to be compounded as demographics drive older and poorer patients to present at korea s health services with more than one health condition and requiring care that straddles multiple health services and specialists