Medical Professors' Group: "42% Decrease in Doctors at 53 Emergency Rooms Nationwide"

7 Hospitals Consider Partial Emergency Room Closures

It is reported that the number of doctors in emergency rooms at 53 hospitals nationwide has decreased by 42%, and 7 hospitals are considering partial closure.

Amid ongoing disruptions in emergency rooms, on the morning of the 8th, a notice about delayed treatment was placed in front of the emergency medical center of a university hospital in Seoul city. [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the survey results on the status of emergency rooms at 53 training hospitals conducted from the 9th to the 10th, announced by the National Council of Medical School Professors (Jeonui Gyohyeop) on the 12th, the number of doctors working in emergency rooms decreased by 41.4%, from 914 last year to 535 during the survey period. Among them, the number of residents (general practitioners) sharply dropped from 386 last year to 33 currently.

Among the hospitals that participated in the survey, 7 had 5 or fewer doctors working in the emergency room, making it impossible to operate 24 hours fully, and these emergency rooms were at a level where partial closure had to be considered. There were 10 hospitals with 6 to 7 doctors, where one doctor had to cover the emergency room 24 hours a day.

Jeonui Gyohyeop explained, "Last year, there was one hospital with only one doctor working, four hospitals with two doctors working partially, and the remaining 48 hospitals all had two or more doctors working, so there was no problem operating the emergency rooms. However, now, except for 7 hospitals with more than 15 doctors, it was calculated that 1.5 doctors work at the same time."

By region, the emergency room operation status worsened the further away from the metropolitan area. In Daejeon·Chungcheong (58%), Busan (53.6%), and Gwangju·Jeonnam (51.2%), the number of emergency room doctors decreased by more than 50%.

In particular, Daejeon·Chungcheong was the only region where the decrease rate of specialists (27.9%) was recorded in the 20% range.

In Seoul, the decrease rate of emergency room doctors was 39.2%, but specialists decreased by only 4%. In Incheon, doctors decreased by 8.9%, but specialists actually increased by 20.7%.

Jeonui Gyohyeop emphasized, "In Busan, the number of emergency medicine doctors at the 5 surveyed hospitals was 32, averaging only 6.4 doctors per hospital, making the working environment worse than other regions," and "This survey result clearly shows that the collapse of emergency rooms is progressing from the provinces."