[Metro24] Incheon Public Hospital Staffing Shortage

Incheon Medical Center

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Although the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the nationwide need to expand public healthcare infrastructure, the situation is even more urgent in Incheon.

There are eight public medical institutions in the Incheon area, including Incheon Medical Center and Incheon Red Cross Hospital, with 1,338 public beds as of 2019, accounting for only 4.5% of Incheon’s total 29,890 beds. The number of public medical institution beds and doctors per 1,000 people are 0.45 beds and 0.4 doctors respectively, both the second lowest among the seven metropolitan cities and provinces, following Ulsan.

Public hospitals handled more than 80% of hospitalized patients during the peak of COVID-19, but they are still struggling with medical personnel shortages. Incheon Medical Center, designated as the regional responsible medical institution, has a dialysis unit but no specialist in charge, and Incheon Red Cross Hospital reopened its emergency room last month after closing it for four years due to management and recruitment difficulties. However, with only one anesthesiologist available, there are concerns about the feasibility of emergency surgeries.

Incheon City’s health sector budget is also only about 2.3% of the total budget. Excluding local government matching projects supported by national funds and the special medical aid account, the city’s own project budget is only about 19.9 billion KRW (0.17% of the total budget). With such a small budget for its own projects, expanding personnel in public hospitals is out of reach.

Recently, Incheon City proposed a plan to select and assign 10 scholarship students from nursing colleges nationwide to address the chronic staffing shortage at Incheon Medical Center. Each student will receive an annual scholarship of 10 million KRW and will be required to work at Incheon Medical Center for two years after graduation. Since about 40 nurses leave every year, making personnel supply difficult, the aim is to cultivate competent public healthcare personnel and ensure a stable supply to Incheon Medical Center.

It is fortunate that the city has initiated the 'Regional Nurse System,' which the Health and Medical Workers’ Union has persistently demanded. However, as of this year, Incheon Medical Center has 65 nursing vacancies, while only 10 public nurse scholarship students have been secured, and the matching budget provided by the city is only 70 million KRW. This inevitably invites criticism that the project is merely for show.

As the control tower for public health and medical care in Incheon, the city must first conduct a survey to determine how many doctors and nurses are needed in the region. Then, it should create a mid- to long-term roadmap and increase the health budget. Short-term support measures alone cannot create a stable virtuous cycle structure for medical personnel.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.