The agony of university hospital heads is deepening as medical professors who complained of “burnout” announced their resignation on Thursday following the shortened medical treatment.

Many senior physicians have been exhausted from overwork since trainee doctors resigned about two months ago to protest the government’s increase in the medical school enrollment quota.

Hospital directors, lamenting that they can do nothing despite the worsening situation caused by the resignation of professors following junior doctors, complained that they would rather "close the hospital" than watch the current stalemate continue.

Already, hospitals are experiencing serious financial difficulties due to the resignation of trainee doctors. According to a survey conducted by the Korean Hospital Association on 50 training hospitals with 500 beds or more from Feb. 26 to March 31, treatment income fell 15.9 percent year-on-year to 423.8 billion won ($307.9 million). Their revenue dropped by 8.47 billion won on average per hospital.

The larger the hospital, the greater the revenue drop. During the survey period, the treatment income of hospitals with 1,000 beds or more decreased by 19.7 percent year-on-year to 91.46 billion won, confirming that the financial deterioration was particularly severe.

In particular, the rate of year-on-year revenue decline was about 2.5 times larger in March than in the last two weeks of February immediately after the resignation of trainee doctors. The deterioration of financial difficulties in April was expected to be even more serious than in March.

"I can't say anything about the professors' decision to resign. It is not a situation where hospital directors can do anything. I think the hospital had better sink quickly (than prolonging the current stalemate)," a university hospital director said on condition of anonymity.

He continued, "People call it a financial, but it's far worse than that. Hospitals are at a crossroads of life or death. Their deficits are huge. At this rate, some may have to close within two months. We have to pay the salaries of our staff right now, but we have no choice but to retire honorably."

Another hospital director said, "Financial difficulties are a euphemism for the current situation. People may think there is room for survival, but we are at the crossroads of survival. The impact on tertiary general hospitals, which had heavily relied on trainee doctors, are particularly serious."

The director continued, "If salaries are not paid, it cannot be called a hospital. Considering the medical staff struggling in the field, I am doing all I can, but it’s never easy."

Hospital heads complained that they are on the brink of extinction, but there has been no breakthrough. They have requested financial support from the government in the form of advanced and supplemental payments for health insurance and medical treatment, but the chances are slim.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare reportedly gave a skeptical answer that it would not be easy to provide financial support as it is not a force majeure disaster situation like MERS or Covid-19.

Yet another director of the university hospital said, "The Ministry of Welfare is very irresponsible. They seem to think Korean hospitals hoard money because their treatment revenue is large. However, due to the medical fee structure and labor-intensive organization, most of the revenue goes into the labor costs of professional staff, falling short of the cost even if normal medical treatment is performed, so it is not a structure where money can be hoarded somewhere else."

The director continued, "Hospitals are where if one of the links in the monetary cycle is broken, it stops immediately. Some say we must use our accumulated reserves to deal with the crisis, but they don't know the situation. Everyone knows (about the hospital crisis), but no one is talking about it because it is uncomfortable."