Danyang-gun Public Health Center Announces 4th Emergency Room Doctor Recruitment
Still Unable to Find Qualified Candidates Despite Exceptional Conditions Offered
The annual salary for emergency medicine specialists at the Chungbuk Danyang-gun Health and Medical Center, scheduled to open in July, has risen to the 400 million KRW range. Initially, despite offering a salary in the high 300 million KRW range along with exceptional benefits such as an apartment and a villa, no suitable candidates were found.
According to Danyang-gun on the 9th, the fourth recruitment period for emergency room doctors to work at the Danyang-gun Health and Medical Center will run until the 11th. The recruitment targets emergency medicine specialists or those with more than five years of emergency room experience. The salary is 422.4 million KRW per year, and severance pay will be provided separately for those who work more than one year. The newly proposed salary by Danyang-gun is known to be the highest level among health and medical centers operated by local governments.
The salary level is 422.4 million KRW, a 10% increase from the 384 million KRW offered during the first recruitment.
Last year, the county planned to hire four specialists in the first recruitment: two in emergency medicine, one in internal medicine, and one in psychiatry. In the first announcement, the county hired three specialists except for one emergency medicine specialist. Unable to fill the remaining emergency medicine specialist position, the county issued second and third announcements but, as no suitable candidates appeared, it offered even more exceptional conditions.
The application criteria were relaxed to include emergency medicine specialists or those with more than five years of emergency room experience if not specialists.
A county official told Yonhap News Agency, "While this is a high level among public medical centers, it cannot be considered very high compared to general hospitals," adding, "Danyang-gun's position is that it must secure excellent medical personnel even if it means paying more."
Some have pointed out that if Danyang-gun succeeds in hiring emergency medicine specialists with the increased salary, there may be issues regarding fairness with the medical staff secured during the first recruitment.
This is because during the first recruitment, Danyang-gun hired three specialists with salaries of 384 million KRW for emergency medicine, 366 million KRW for internal medicine, and 264 million KRW for psychiatry.
Yonhap News Agency reported that Danyang-gun plans to decide whether to raise the salaries of already hired medical staff after receiving external legal advice.
The Danyang-gun Health and Medical Center, officially opening in July next year, is a small public medical institution with 30 beds and eight clinical departments including internal medicine, psychiatry, ophthalmology, Korean medicine, and dentistry. Ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics will have rotating medical staff from other regional medical centers on designated days.
The remaining clinical departments will be staffed by 10 public health doctors.
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