The Most Common Department for New Clinics is 'Dermatology'... Pediatrics Shows the Largest Decline

Over the past five years, the medical specialty most frequently newly established by general practitioners who are not specialists was found to be 'Dermatology.'

On the 3rd, Shin Hyun-young, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, received data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service on the status of newly established general clinics by general practitioners from 2018 to 2022. According to the data, Dermatology accounted for the highest number with 843 cases (21.9%).

This was followed by Internal Medicine with 415 cases (10.8%), Plastic Surgery with 415 cases (10.7%), and Family Medicine with 414 cases (10.7%). Medical personnel must report their medical specialties when opening a medical institution. Over the past five years, a total of 979 general clinics were newly established by general practitioners, with 3,857 reported medical specialties. On average, one medical institution reported 3.9 medical specialties.

Shin Hyun-young, member of the Democratic Party of Korea.

The proportion of Dermatology reports also increased the most. It rose by 4.2 percentage points from 19.5% (154 cases) in 2018 to 23.7% (193 cases) last year. This was followed by Family Medicine, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and Plastic Surgery in order of increase.

Conversely, the medical specialty with the largest decrease in reporting proportion was Pediatrics, which fell by 2.3 percentage points from 6.7% (53 cases) in 2018 to 4.4% (36 cases) last year. Otorhinolaryngology, Urology, and Neurology also saw declines in their proportions during the same period.

Assembly member Shin stated, "The opening of general clinics focusing on non-reimbursable popular specialties is increasing. This reflects a clear concentration phenomenon that matches the criteria residents use when choosing their specialties to become specialists, which is similarly appearing among general practitioners." She added, "This is the result of insufficient national efforts to strengthen primary care capable of comprehensive and continuous treatment. Along with adjusting the number of doctors, the government must also establish mechanisms to support an increase in doctors choosing essential medical fields, which is another basis for this."

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