17 National University Hospitals Have the Greatest Doctor Shortage Relative to Quota
20% of Public Institutions Lack Doctors, Leading to Department Closures
"Medical School Quota Expansion Needed to Prevent Collapse of Local Healthcare"
It has been revealed that finding doctors for public institutions in South Korea, such as national university hospitals, Red Cross hospitals, nuclear hospitals, and local medical centers, is as difficult as "picking stars from the sky." A review of the current number of doctors compared to the quota in public medical institutions confirmed a shortage of more than 2,400 doctors.
The shortage of doctors in public medical institutions reaches 2,427... Many departments have also closed
According to data submitted on the 23rd by Jeong Chun-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, from eight ministries including the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korean Red Cross, and 17 metropolitan cities and provinces, the total quota for 223 public medical institutions was 14,341 doctors.
However, the actual number of doctors working in medical fields was only 11,914, resulting in a shortage of 2,427 doctors.
By ministry, among the 12 public medical institutions under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the quota was 894 doctors, but the actual number was 823, falling short by 71 doctors. Seven Red Cross hospitals also showed a shortage of 7 doctors.
The eight hospitals under the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, which serve national merit recipients, were short by a total of 76 doctors, and the 14 industrial accident hospitals under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, responsible for industrial accidents, were short by 25 doctors.
In particular, the 35 local medical centers and 17 national university hospitals, which play a central role in public healthcare, were short by 87 and 1,940 doctors respectively compared to their quotas, averaging a shortage of about 2.5 doctors per local medical center and about 114 doctors per national university hospital.
Due to this shortage of medical personnel, it is not uncommon to find departments closed within regional public medical institutions.
About 20% of public medical institutions have departments closed due to a lack of doctors, and especially among the 35 local medical centers, 23 have reported closed departments.
Need for 'mandatory regional service' and strengthened support for local government hospital facilities
As the government recently began actively increasing medical school quotas, experts advise introducing public medical schools and regional doctor systems. Both public medical schools and regional doctor systems are based on the principle of 'mandatory regional service.'
Furthermore, compared to private medical institutions in the region, local government heads should strengthen support for public medical institutions, which suffer from a lack of fellow doctors and nursing staff, as well as poor equipment and facilities.
Assemblywoman Jeong emphasized, "Alongside expanding medical school quotas, the introduction of public medical schools and regional doctor systems should strengthen the capacity of public medical institutions to handle essential and regional healthcare."
Doctors avoid regions despite annual salaries of 300 million to 400 million KRW... Threaten strike over medical school quota increase
Meanwhile, the Department of Psychiatry at Seogwipo Medical Center in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province raised the annual salary from 150 million KRW at the initial announcement in September 2021 to 300 million KRW in August this year, yet has still been unable to recruit a doctor. Sokcho Medical Center in Gangwon Province posted a recruitment notice with an annual salary of 400 million KRW, but it took as long as three months to complete hiring.
In a demand survey conducted recently by the Ministry of Health and Welfare targeting 40 medical schools nationwide to expand medical school quotas, medical schools across the country expressed a desire to roughly double the current quota (3,058) to between 2,151 and 2,847 by 2025, and between 2,738 and 3,953 by 2030.
However, the Korean Medical Association warned that if the government forcibly expands medical school quotas as planned, they will engage in strong protests exceeding the level of the 2020 strike, including a total strike.
The Korean Intern Resident Association, representing interns and residents, also opposed the government's announcement of the medical school quota expansion demand survey results, stating, "If arbitrary decisions are forced based on absurd grounds, we will never stand by silently."
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