Teaching hospitals fire 7,648 trainee doctors, seek to hire 7,707 in autumn

Teaching hospitals nationwide have accepted the resignation of 7,648 trainee doctors while seeking to recruit 7,707 new ones in the second half of this year. However, the resignation acceptance rates were markedly lower in provincial hospitals than those in the Seoul metro region.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare released the resignation-acceptance status of trainee doctors and new recruitment plans for the second half-year at 110 out of 151 teaching hospitals, which had submitted related documents as of Wednesday.

According to the ministry, 7,648, or 56.5 percent, of the 13,531 trainee doctors eligible for employment as of March have resigned, including those who voluntarily gave up employment. Among them, 2,950, or 96.2 percent, of the 3,068 interns eligible for employment resigned, while 4,698, or 44.9 percent, of the 10,463 residents eligible for employment resigned.

Instead, the teaching hospitals applied to replenish 7,707 trainee doctors --2,557 interns and 5,150 residents -- in the second half-year. The maximum number of applications is the total number of applications minus vacancies and can be higher than that of resignations.

The ministry plans to verify the second-half recruitment plans submitted by training hospitals applied by Friday, issue a recruitment announcement for the second half-year next Monday, and proceed with the recruitment process until August.

The nation's five largest hospitals have batched the resignation letters of unresponsive trainee doctors and completed the recruitment application for the second half of this year. The resignation acceptance rate of the  so-called "Big Five" hospitals exceeded 90 percent, and the ratio of resignation to recruitment applications exceeded 100 percent in three of the Big Five hospitals except for Seoul National University Hospital and Asan Medical Center.

The Catholic University of Korea Catholic Medical Center, which includes Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, accepted the resignation of 881 of 960 trainee doctors and applied to recruit 1,019 trainee doctors, 138 more than the number of resignations. Severance Hospital has let 634 of 677 trainee doctors resign and decided to recruit 729 in the second half. Samsung Medical Center has let 505 of 537 trainee doctors quit and applied to recruit 521.

Asan Medical Center has let 520 of 583 trainee doctors but the number of applicants for the second half of the year was 423, less than the number of resignations. Seoul National University Hospital has also let 739 of 806 junior doctors leave but applied to recruit 191 new ones. Seoul National University Bundang Hospital also saw 141 of 204 trainee doctors quit but applied to recruit only six.

Likewise, some training hospitals seemed to have decided to hold off on accepting resignations or keep the number of applications for the second half of the year lower than the number of vacancies to leave room for existing trainee doctors if and when they return. It was especially so in provincial hospitals. Forty-one training hospitals with trainee doctors subject to employment did not accept their resignations at all.

Those with resignation acceptance rates of less than 30 percent include Kyungpook National University Hospital, Chungnam National University Hospital, Keimyuong University Dongsan Hospital, Yeungnam University Medical Center, Chosun University Hospital, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Ulsan University Hospital, Konyang National University Hospital, Daegu Catholic University Medical Center, Kangwon National University Hospital, Kosin University Gospel Hospital, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Daegu Fatima Hospital, and Pusan National University Hospital.

In particular, Pusan National University Hospital decided to recruit only one trainee doctor in the second half of the year.

The government plans to focus on establishing a normal training environment by, for instance, applying special exceptions to allow returning trainee doctors to resume the training process in the second half of the year.

“The government will take measures to ensure that returning trainee doctors can continue their training normally and minimize the impact on the timing of obtaining specialist qualifications,” said Jeong Yoon-soon, head of the Healthcare Policy Office at the ministry. “We ask as many trainee doctors as possible to return and continue their training during the second half-year recruitment process.”

In a press release, the Medical Professors Association of Korea’s emergency committee said, ‘Under the government’s pressure, training hospitals are accepting the resignation of trainee doctors en masse who have not announced their intention to return.”

The committee criticized the government's tactic of “splitting trainee doctors” to fill vacancies in the second half of the recruitment process, saying, “The government's tactic will eventually lead to the worst result of the collapse of regional and essential medicine.”

“We strongly criticize the government's stop-gap policy and urge it to accommodate the needs of trainee doctors for a normal medical system,” it added.