"15 Dispatched Military Doctors Sequentially Give Up Saying 'Cannot Provide Emergency Room Treatment'"

Return to military service or assignment outside emergency rooms
Lack of clinical experience and unclear responsibility
Ministry of Health and Welfare: "Available personnel support will be helpful on site"

The government is dispatching military doctors to hospitals experiencing disruptions in emergency room operations, but many of them are refusing to work and returning to the military, causing ongoing emergency room dysfunction.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the medical community on the 7th, all 15 military doctors dispatched and assigned on the 4th to five medical institutions including Ewha Mokdong Hospital, Ajou University Hospital, Sejong Chungnam National University Hospital, Chungbuk National University Hospital, and Kangwon National University Hospital are currently not working in the emergency rooms.

At Ewha Mokdong Hospital, three military doctors were initially assigned, but they expressed that they could not perform full-scale emergency room treatment, leading the hospital to notify them to return. It is known that among the dispatched military doctors were emergency medicine specialists. As a result, the emergency room at Ewha Mokdong Hospital is currently operated by three existing emergency medicine specialists without any military doctors.

At Ajou University Hospital, two military doctors were assigned to the emergency room and one to anesthesiology, but all of them indicated that they could not work on site.

The two military doctors dispatched to Sejong Chungnam National University Hospital were also emergency medicine specialists, but they all stopped working and returned to the military after determining they could not work on site.

Chungbuk National University Hospital assigned two military doctors with emergency medicine specialist backgrounds to the intensive care unit instead of the emergency room, and Kangwon National University Hospital is reportedly discussing assigning military doctors to other duties rather than the emergency room, considering their specialties and experience.

Inside and outside the medical community, it is viewed that even military doctors who have obtained specialist qualifications are reluctant to be deployed on site because they have not long completed their residency training and lack extensive clinical experience. Additionally, the range of patients that doctors can treat varies depending on their specialty, and the responsibility for medical accidents is also cited as reasons why dispatched military doctors avoid emergency room treatment.

On the other hand, the government maintains that the deployment of military doctors is meaningful primarily to support the shortage of personnel. Instead, they plan to create work guidelines together with the Ministry of National Defense to ensure that the dispatch of military doctors and public health doctors can be effective on site.

Baek Dong-taek, Director of the Health Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said at a daily emergency medical briefing the day before, "Since there is a shortage of medical personnel on site, it will not be ineffective for the government to support available personnel," adding, "Whether they work in the emergency room or assist with behind-the-scenes treatment, I believe they will definitely be helpful on site."