Only 7.5% of trainee doctors work in teaching hospitals due to protracted government-doctor conflict

According to a survey, only 7.5 percent of junior trainee doctors are working at teaching hospitals nationwide. Daegu showed the lowest attendance rate.

Rep. Lim Mi-ae of the Democratic Party of Korea said Tuesday that based on an analysis of data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the share of interns and residents attending 100 training hospitals nationwide was 7.5 percent as of Jan. 7.

According to the data, 987 out of 9,992 junior doctors (9.0 percent in attendance rate) are working at training hospitals. The attendance rate for interns was even lower at 2.2 percent, as only 65 out of 2,905 interns worked.

Jeju Province, where 23 out of 130 trainee doctors (17.7 percent) were working, marked the highest attendance rate. The island province was followed by Ulsan (14.7 percent), North Gyeongsang Province (11.7 percent), Gangwon Province (11.2 percent), and Incheon (9.3 percent).

In contrast, Daegu showed the lowest attendance rate, as only 26 out of 862 junior doctors (3.0 percent in attendance rate) went to work. Also recording the low attendance rate were South Gyeongsang Province (4.2 percent), North Chungcheong Province (4.5 percent), Busan (5.2 percent), and Gwangju (5.3 percent).

In Seoul, which has the largest number of trainee doctors, 448 out of 5,403, or 8.3 percent, were working.

Not a single intern reported to work in Gwangju, Gangwon, South and North Chungcheong, Ulsan, Jeju, South Jeolla, and North Gyeongsang.

Concerns were mounting about the collapse of the regional healthcare system in Daegu, the city with the lowest attendance rate.

“The decline in the return rate of trainee doctors is causing a serious manpower vacuum in the field of essential medicine,” said an official from the Daegu Medical Association. “An increasing number of professors and fellows are resigning or moving to the Seoul metro region, unable to withstand the heavy workload.”

“This is not just a labor shortage. Research projects at hospitals are being halted, and even essential educational functions, such as the training of junior doctors and student internships, are being paralyzed,” he said. “The situation is leading to the reduction of medical treatment and the collapse of hospitals, undermining the foundation of regional medical services.”

Rep. Lim also called for a swift resolution of the government-doctor conflict.

“As professors from provincial universities move to the greater Seoul area to fill the gap in the latter’s labor force, and medical professionals who have quit due to heavy workload open their clinics, the collapse of the medical scene is cascading like a domino effect,” Lim said. “The government should not delay the resolution of the conflict any longer.”