19 Out of 23 Regional Medical Centers Designated as Training Hospitals Have Zero Residents

Assemblyman Kim Yoon:
16 Out of 35 Regional Medical Centers Nationwide
Fail to Meet Physician Staffing Quotas

It has been revealed that among the 23 regional medical centers responsible for resident training, 19 do not have a single resident. Additionally, 16 out of a total of 35 regional medical centers have failed to meet their physician staffing quotas, raising concerns that the collapse of local healthcare will only worsen.

On September 18, Assemblyman Kim Yoon of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, analyzed data titled "2024 National Regional Medical Centers Physician Staffing Quotas and Actual Staffing" submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The analysis found that in 2024, 16 out of 35 regional medical centers nationwide failed to meet their physician quotas.

In particular, even major urban hubs such as Seoul Medical Center (67.7%) and Daegu Medical Center (72.7%) had significant staffing shortages, while Seongnam City Medical Center recorded the lowest staffing rate in the country at 55.6%.

The number of resident positions at the 23 regional medical centers designated as training hospitals also plummeted by about 80%, from 143 in 2023 to 29 in 2024. The number of regional medical centers without a single resident more than doubled, from 8 in December 2023 to 19 in 2024.

By hospital, the number of residents at Seoul Medical Center dropped sharply from 83 to 12, while at Busan Metropolitan City Medical Center, it fell by half from 20 to 10.

Assemblyman Kim Yoon stated, "Following the collapse of the training functions at regional medical centers, the shortage of medical personnel has become a serious problem. Because the so-called 'good deficits' that arise from providing low-profit medical services are being shifted onto individual hospitals, these hospitals are struggling to pay wages, which blocks new personnel from joining and makes it difficult for existing staff to remain, creating a vicious cycle."

He further emphasized, "It is now clear that the current system, in which each medical institution recruits residents independently, has reached its limit. To ensure the quality of education and training and to lay the foundation for securing medical personnel, a system must be established in which medical institutions within a region can jointly train residents."

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