Only 113 residents are currently training in pediatrics at teaching hospitals across South Korea, and 89 of them work in Seoul, raising concerns about a severe gap in pediatric care outside the capital.
According to data obtained from the Ministry of Health and Welfare by Rep. So Byung-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, 113 residents were enrolled in pediatrics at teaching hospitals nationwide as of this month. The figure marks an 80.9% plunge from 593 in 2021, a drop that took just five years.
The regional imbalance is a bigger problem than the shrinking numbers. Of the 113 residents, 89 work in Seoul, accounting for 78.8% of the total. Six metropolitan cities and provinces — Gangwon State, North Gyeongsang Province, South Gyeongsang Province, South Jeolla Province, Sejong and Incheon — have none at all.
Low pay, heavy workloads and the legal risk tied to medical accidents are cited as reasons behind the drop in applications for pediatric residencies. Doctors point in particular to the heavier burden of criminal liability since the 2017 deaths of newborns at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital.
In December 2017, four newborns being treated in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit died of sepsis, and medical staff were arrested. They were acquitted after about five years of investigation and trial.
After the case, the application rate for pediatric residencies fell sharply to 25.5% in 2023 from 112.1% in 2017.
"A situation in which 85% of teaching hospitals fail to take in even a single new resident goes beyond the collapse of the regional pediatric care safety net — it amounts to a national disaster," So said. "We need measures such as government funding for pediatric residency training costs and direct fiscal support to keep subspecialists employed."
