Patients wait to see doctors at Pusan National University Hospital in South Korea’s southeastern port city of Busan on Aug. 7, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The pediatrics departments at major general hospitals in Seoul received fewer than necessary medical resident applications this year.
Among Seoul’s “big 5″ hospitals, only Asan Medical Center was able to fill enough seats for first-year medical residents at the pediatrics department next year, according to industry sources.
The pediatrics department at Asan Medical Center received 10 medical resident applications for eight slots.
In contrast, Samsung Medical Center received only three applications for six slots. Seoul National University Hospital received 10 applications for 14 slots.
The pediatrics department at Catholic University Medical Center, including Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, received only one medical resident application for 13 slots.
No applications were submitted to the pediatrics department at Severance Hospital with 11 open slots.
Nationwide, only 33 applications were submitted for 191 slots, for an application rate of only 16.6 percent.
The application rate for pediatrics departments has been shrinking, going from 80 percent in 2019 to 27.5 percent in 2022.
Among 62 training hospitals that received medical residents in 2023, only 11 hospitals received more than one application.
The plunging number of applications is resulting in an increasingly difficult medical environment for pediatricians.
Gacheon University Gil Medical Center, a general hospital in Incheon, west of Seoul, decided to temporarily shut down hospitalization treatment for the pediatrics department due to a lack of medical staff.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
