Regional public hospitals suffer serious staff shortage

• Published date: 09 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Public medical centers located outside of Seoul are suffering serious doctor shortages due mainly to the lower pay and educational standards seen further out from the city.

According to documents submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to Rep. Suh Jung-sook of the ruling People Power Party, 24 out of 35 regional medical centers have failed to meet the necessary quota for doctors as of January this year.

The ratio of vacancies on average is about 18 percent, meaning that each hospital is one out of five doctors short of the necessary amount needed to operate normally.

Unpopular fields such as pediatrics, obstetrics, cardiothoracic surgery and neurosurgery have faced a more serious operating crisis, causing damage to patients in regional areas.

Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Ansung Hospital closed its operating room for two months from December to January. It could not recruit an anesthesiologist at the time.

Incheon Medical Center has suspended the operation of its hemodialysis unit after the nephrology doctor quit last year. The hospital has failed to fill the vacancy.

Cheongju Medical Center in North Chungcheong Province has suspended medical services in the departments of neurology and ophthalmology for three years and five years, respectively, due also to recruitment failures.

The hospital said it is fortunate that an ophthalmologist is planning to join the hospital next month. But the pulmonology department is expected to face another suspension as the current pulmonologist is planning to quit this month to move to another hospital near Seoul.

In the same province, Chungju Medical Center has faced a similar situation. Its ear-nose-and-throat clinic as well as the departments of rehabilitation medicine and family medicine have suspended their services.

"We have paid about 7 million won ($5,300) to 8 million won annually for putting up job advertisements. The advertisements are posted 365 days a year, but doctors are reluctant to work here," an official from Chungju Medical Center said.

Sokcho Medical Center in Gangwon Province has recently drawn attention after increasing its annual salary for emergency medicine specialists to 420 million won in its recent recruitment notice.

The hospital, which shortened the operation of its emergency room to four days a week due to a staff shortage last month, needs to recruit three emergency medicine specialists. But there were no applicants in the first...