"If This Continues, Pediatric Patient Care System Will Collapse... Establish a Presidential Advisory Panel for Discussion" (Comprehensive)

Joint Press Conference of Pediatric and Adolescent Societies and Organizations
75% of Training Hospitals Plan to Reduce Services Next Year
Resident Application Rate Only 15.9%

The Korean Pediatric Society, the Korean Pediatric Association, and the Korean Children's Hospital Association held a joint press conference on the 16th at the Korean Medical Association Hall in Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, titled "Joint Press Conference to Overcome the Crisis of the Collapse of the Pediatric and Adolescent Health Safety Net." Photo by Lee Gwan-ju

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] As Gachon University Gil Medical Center has suspended inpatient treatment for pediatric and adolescent patients, it has been revealed that three out of four domestic pediatric and adolescent training hospitals plan to reduce their medical services starting next year. The medical community is calling for measures to address concerns that the pediatric and adolescent care system could collapse due to a shortage of personnel.

The Korean Pediatric Society, the Korean Pediatricians Association, and the Korean Children’s Hospital Association held a joint press conference on the 16th at the Korean Medical Association Hall in Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, titled “Joint Press Conference to Overcome the Crisis of the Pediatric and Adolescent Health Safety Net Collapse,” urging the government and the National Assembly to promptly establish countermeasures.

According to a survey conducted this year by the society targeting pediatric and adolescent residency training hospitals nationwide, 75% of the hospitals responded that they plan to reduce medical services starting next year. The most common response was to close or reduce emergency care (61%), followed by reducing inpatient care (12.5%) and reducing intensive care units (5%).

The biggest issue is the shortage of personnel. The proportion of training hospitals with no resident doctors on duty increased to 12.5% in Seoul and 20% in provincial areas this year. Especially, the society explained that due to the deepening absence of residents in provincial regional training hospitals, only 39% of the required resident workforce will be available next year. Although the shortage of residents has been temporarily managed by relying on professors and specialists on duty, after two years, the situation has reached its limit, leading to a rapid reduction in emergency and inpatient care volumes at regional and metropolitan core training hospitals.

In the nationwide resident recruitment conducted from the 5th to the 7th of this month for next year, only 33 out of 207 available positions in pediatrics and adolescent medicine were filled, resulting in a plummeting application rate of 15.9%. The application rate for pediatric residency was 80% in 2019 and 74% in 2020, showing some level of support, but it dropped to 38% in 2021 and 27.5% in 2022.

The worsening personnel shortage has led to medical service problems in hospitals. According to a nationwide survey of training hospitals conducted by the society this year, only 36% of training hospitals were capable of providing normal 24-hour pediatric and adolescent emergency care. Although 75% of training hospitals had professors on duty nationwide, only 27% operated with at least one dedicated inpatient specialist. In Seoul alone, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Ewha Mokdong Hospital, and Hanyang University Hospital have reduced night-time or pediatric emergency room services. This has been pointed out as causing a “balloon effect,” where pediatric patients crowd into nearby hospitals.

Kim Ji-hong, director of the Korean Pediatric Society, stated, “Before the national health safety net for children and adolescents collapses, a presidential advisory body should be established as soon as possible to enable the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, and pediatricians to swiftly implement policies suited to the field situation, and the National Assembly must support these with laws and budgets.”

To this end, the medical community has called for strengthening the level of coverage appropriate to the characteristics of pediatric and adolescent care to attract medical personnel, and reforming the medical delivery system by improving tertiary care fees focused on severity. They also urged measures such as wage support and auxiliary staff cost subsidies to strengthen resident recruitment, transitioning to specialist-centered care to overcome the personnel crisis, and normalizing fees to restore primary care, shifting to a management and intervention-centered primary care model.

Above all, the medical community emphasized that the future of pediatrics and adolescent medicine must be guaranteed to attract residents. Lim Hyun-taek, president of the Korean Pediatricians Association, said, “The reason for the lack of applicants is that the future of pediatrics is not visible,” and stressed, “To build medical infrastructure for our children’s lives, the future must be guaranteed so that they can become pediatric specialists, which will increase applications.” Director Kim also said, “It is necessary to create an environment where residents can have hope and continuously enter, at least minimally sustaining operations, and to support the transition of intensive care and high-difficulty treatments to a dedicated specialist system.”

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