[Reporter’s Notebook] Unresolved Issues Remain After Residents Return

Last year, medical residents who had taken off their white coats and left their training sites have returned to their positions after one year and seven months. Following announcements to recruit approximately 13,500 interns and residents for the second half of the year at around 160 training hospitals nationwide, it is expected that patient care will improve as 70 to 80 percent of residents at Seoul's "Big 5" hospitals have returned.

However, outside the Seoul metropolitan area, the resident return rate remains around 50 percent, and in some essential medical departments-such as emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics-the number of applicants is so low that it is difficult to even use the term "return." Although, on the surface, the conflict between doctors and the government appears to have been resolved, chronic issues such as the concentration of medical professionals in the capital region and shortages in regional and essential healthcare persist. The "emergency room runaround" and "pediatric open run" incidents that occurred last year could easily recur at any time.

The gap between so-called lucrative "popular departments" like dermatology, ophthalmology, and plastic surgery, and "avoided departments" such as obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and emergency medicine has become even more pronounced. Even within the capital region, all residents have returned to departments with a high volume of non-insured treatments and where opening a private clinic is relatively easy. In contrast, essential departments such as cardiothoracic surgery have failed to fill even half of their positions, even at Seoul National University Hospital. A staff member at a general hospital shared, "In some pediatric departments, residents have demanded not to take night shifts as a condition for returning, leading to heated debates among professors. In our orthopedic department, not only have residents from other medical schools who were recruited earlier this year returned, but also those from our own school, resulting in more residents than the official quota." After a period when almost every hospital suffered from severe staffing shortages due to the mass resignation of residents, the return of residents is now making the gap between the capital and regional areas, as well as between popular and essential departments, even more pronounced.

The current shortage of residents means that, in three to four years, there will be no new specialists in those regions or departments. Even if one or two individuals feel a sense of duty and wish to dedicate themselves to regional or essential healthcare, it is understandable that they hesitate to apply, knowing they would be overburdened with work without colleagues or mentors to support them.

The previous administration's policy to increase medical school admissions was initiated to address these gaps in regional and essential healthcare. Although it was pushed forward without sufficient evidence and met with strong opposition from the medical community, its original intention was to ensure the health and safety of the public. Given that countless medical students and residents have lost more than a year and a half, and that patients and the public have made significant sacrifices, the return of residents to training must not simply mean a return to the pre-conflict status quo. It is time for the government, political circles, and the medical community to come together once again to find fundamental solutions for better healthcare.