Beds sit empty in the inpatient ward of the drug addiction treatment center at Bugok National Hospital in Changnyeong County, South Gyeongsang, on July 6. Like the National Fire Hospital, Bugok National Hospital is struggling to recruit physicians.KIM MIN-JU
Korea's chronic shortage of doctors at regional medical institutions is spreading, with the country's only national hospital dedicated to firefighters struggling to recruit doctors, operating with only about 60 percent of its planned physician work force nearly two months after opening.
The National Fire Hospital, a 204.9 billion won ($142 million) project that opened in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong, on June 8, is a 302-bed general hospital, according to the National Fire Agency on Wednesday.
The facility was established to provide specialized treatment for firefighters who face occupational hazards such as burns, traumatic injuries, exposure to hazardous substances and post-traumatic stress disorder. The hospital has 18 clinical departments, including internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry and rehabilitation medicine, as well as an emergency department. It is operated under contract by Seoul National University Hospital and is also open to the general public.
The hospital, however, has fallen well short of its staffing targets. As of July 14, it had 30 physicians, filling only 62.5 percent of its authorized 48 positions.
Among the 18 clinical departments, eight are understaffed. If subspecialties within internal medicine are counted separately, the number of understaffed departments rises to 12. The facility still needs to recruit 18 more physicians.
The hospital has failed to recruit a single specialist for its hospital medicine department, which has three authorized positions. Also unfilled are two positions in its nephrology department and one position in its endocrinology department, leaving them unable to provide medical services.
The emergency medicine department, one of the five essential medical specialties alongside internal medicine, has filled only two of its six authorized positions. Other departments, including plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, neurology, radiology and anesthesiology and pain medicine, are each short by one physician.
The National Fire Hospital in Eomseong County, North ChungcheongEOMSEONG COUNTY
The National Fire Agency plans to hire four additional specialists in September to fill all positions in emergency medicine.
The agency attributed the recruitment difficulties to the nationwide shortage of specialists, the hospital's location and the fact that it is still in its early stages of operation.
North Chungcheong had 0.71 hospital physicians per 1,000 residents in 2023, less than half of Seoul's 1.94, according to data from the National Medical Center.
"We plan to improve working conditions by enhancing the local living environment and creating better clinical and research opportunities so that medical professionals can work here on a stable basis," a National Fire Agency official said.
The National Fire Hospital is not the only public hospital struggling to recruit physicians. Regional public hospitals have increasingly been forced to scale back inpatient services or suspend certain practices because they cannot secure specialists.
Ulju County Hospital in Ulsan, which is scheduled to open next month, has secured only seven of its planned 12 physicians.
Ulsan is the only metropolitan city or province in Korea without a public medical center. Local public health centers in the city have also reduced vaccination hours or experienced service disruptions because they have been unable to recruit doctors.
The Bugok National Hospital in Changnyeong County, South Gyeongsang, which operates the country's largest inpatient ward for drug addiction treatment, has not accepted any new inpatients since its last patient was discharged in late April because it has no psychiatrist to oversee inpatient care.
The hospital has posted nine recruitment notices this year but has not received a single application.
Ambulances are parked in front of an emergency room of a general hospital in Seoul on Sept. 3, 2024.YONHAP
Private hospitals in regional areas are facing similar difficulties.
Waegwan Hospital, the only hospital operating an emergency room in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang, will close its emergency department on Friday, citing financial difficulties and a shortage of medical staff. Once the emergency room closes, emergency patients in the county will have to travel about 20 minutes to hospitals in Daegu or Gumi, North Gyeongsang.
Kabul Noksan Hospital in Gangseo District, Busan, also suspended emergency room operations in June because of financial losses and staffing shortages.
Regional governments are scrambling to minimize disruptions by revising emergency patient transport guidelines and introducing other measures.
One public health center has introduced a system under which physicians operating private practices are contracted to perform part of the center's medical services.
"The regional health care gap cannot be resolved simply by increasing the number of doctors," Yoon Tae-ho, a professor at Pusan National University’s School of Medicine, wrote in a paper published last year in the journal Health and Social Welfare Review.
"We need to build a regional health care ecosystem by expanding regional hub hospitals, reforming residency training systems and providing dedicated support for medically underserved areas so that physicians can establish long-term practices in regional communities."
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
