Medical residents’ applications for essential care departments, including pediatrics, continued to remain low in the second-half year, triggering calls for the government’s active support to the “unpopular but vital” sector.
According to Rep. Lee Jong-seong of the ruling People Power Party, only four applied for 143 vacant positions in pediatrics, marking a 2.8 percent application rate. Even all four applicants wanted to work at teaching hospitals in Seoul.
Obstetrics and gynecology also showed a low application rate of 7.7 percent, with four medical residents wanting to specialize in the department which needed 52 specialists. Three of the four applicants reportedly wanted to work in Seoul. Only three applied for emergency medicine, which sought to recruit 40 specialists. Two wanted to work in Seoul.
Surgery, another essential care department, drew only five applicants for 72 positions, recording a 6.9 percent application rate. Cardiothoracic surgery had only one applicant for 30 positions, showing a 3.3 percent application rate.
In contrast, six popular departments – orthopedics, rehabilitation, radiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, and plastic surgery -- met the application rate of 100 percent. The number of applicants was much higher than the openings in some of these departments.
Specifically, orthopedics received 32 applicants for nine positions, resulting in an application rate of 355.6 percent, and rehabilitation received 27 applicants for seven positions, an application rate of 385.7 percent. Radiology, which had two openings, had two applicants. Dermatology had two applicants for one position, and plastic surgery, which had five positions, had 16 applicants, with a 320.0 percent application rate.
Rep. Lee pointed out that these results came despite the government's efforts to revive essential medical care in the first half of this year by announcing measures related to essential medical care, including the Essential Medical Care Support Plan, Pediatric Medical Care System Improvement Plan, and the Fourth Emergency Medical Care Basic Plan.
He emphasized that it is urgent to come up with measures that can immediately solve the realistic problems of doctors in the field of essential medicine by, for instance, reintroducing the training allowance for specialists and easing the burden of criminal liability for medical accidents.
Among the government's measures, the biggest problem is the lack of measures that can immediately solve the problems of doctors in the field of essential medicine, Lee said.
"Detailed measures related to doctors, such as improving continuous work and easing the burden of medical accidents, are only planned but not properly implemented," he said. "To send a message that the government will focus on supporting essential medical subjects that are highly shunned, it is necessary to consider reintroducing the training subsidy for specialists or easing the burden of criminal liability for medical accidents."