In South Korea, hospitals still struggle to recruit emergency doctors despite high salaries, and the healthcare system faces challenges

Recently, the emergency medical system of hospitals in South Korea is facing severe challenges. Although some local hospitals offer an annual salary as high as 400 million won, it is still difficult to recruit enough emergency doctors.

It is understood that in recent years, the phenomenon of "difficulty in finding a bed" for emergency patients in South Korea has been continuously aggravated. According to statistics from the South Korean Fire Department, from February to August 25 this year, the number of times that emergency teams requested the emergency situation management center to find vacant emergency beds increased significantly by 131% year-on-year. The main reason for this dilemma is the shortage of emergency department doctors. Affected by policies such as the expansion of medical schools, hospitals have been chronically short of staff. Coupled with the collective strike of intern and resident doctors, refusals to treat patients in emergency rooms occur frequently. In the first half of this year, there have been 78 cases where patients were forced to transfer to another hospital twice due to being refused treatment in the emergency room, almost reaching the level of last year.

Many local hospitals have to reduce services because they cannot recruit emergency department doctors. For example, Gangwon University Hospital has suspended night emergency services for ***s. Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital and Ajou University Hospital also provide limited emergency services at specific times. Gangwon University Hospital has released 16 recruitment announcements in the past two years, but few people apply. And many doctors are more inclined to work in hospitals in the capital area with better conditions.

Some emergency department doctors in Seoul said that even with high salaries, it is difficult to easily recruit staff due to the high intensity of work in the emergency department. And as colleagues leave, the work difficulty may further increase. The South Korean Federation for Critical Illnesses pointed out that the current medical situation has reached the worst point, called on the government to have a dialogue with doctors to seek solutions, and suggested that intern and resident doctors return to work as soon as possible. The South Korean government also said that it has fully grasped the situation, launched a patient dispersion policy, and dispatched 250 military doctors and public health physicians this month to fill the medical gap. At the same time, it coordinates with various hospitals and designates on-duty hospitals during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday to ensure the smooth progress of emergency medical services during holidays. But how to fundamentally solve the shortage of emergency doctors remains a difficult problem that the South Korean healthcare system urgently needs to overcome.