Gachon University Gil Hospital, a tertiary general hospital in the Incheon area, announced that it would temporarily suspend inpatient treatment for children until the end of February next year due to lack of willingness to operate an inpatient ward. This is because 4 out of 5 pediatricians were excluded from treatment due to preparation for the specialist qualification exam and failed to recruit new majors. The Gil Hospital incident shows that even in the metropolitan area and advanced hospitals, where the supply and demand of doctors were stable, there is a serious gap in essential medical care.
The problem is that the shortage of pediatricians is not a temporary phenomenon. In the first half of next year, the ratio of applicants (33) to the quota (199) for pediatric majors is only 16.6%. Gil Hospital said it would resume inpatient treatment as soon as doctors were recruited, but this time it did not apply for a single resident. There are concerns regarding the collapse of pediatric care infrastructure as not only provincial hospitals but also senior hospitals in Seoul have failed to recruit residents.
The application rate for pediatric majors fell sharply to 38% in 2021 and 27% in 2022 following first falling short in 2019. This is because it has become difficult to make up for the low income due to the low birth rate, and children and adolescents and businesses have closed down one following another as they passed through Corona 19. Another reason is that the burden of medical lawsuits has increased since the death of a newborn baby at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital in 2017. Due to the chronic shortage of pediatricians, children are traveling in search of hospitals that can provide emergency treatment or surgery. What did the government do until the lack of doctors threatened the lives of the people?
On the 8th, the government announced support measures to expand pediatric emergency medical centers and designate pediatric cancer regional hub hospitals. Yesterday, he said he would increase investment in essential medical services through health insurance reform. However, the effectiveness of the countermeasures cannot be guaranteed unless there is a sufficient supply of doctors. The crisis of essential medical doctors, including the pediatric department, is a overlapping problem of the tendency to focus on profitable medical departments and the lack of supply of doctors. In the short term, it is necessary to reorganize the medical fee system, which has caused people to avoid essential medical care, to prevent distorted distribution of doctors, and in the long term, consider adjusting the number of doctors. If this situation does not improve, the Gil Hospital incident is just a trailer.
