This broadcast was produced with the support of the government advertising fee of the Korea Press Foundation. [Tracking 60 Minutes 1389th episode] There is no hospital in the countryside Part 1 - Doctors looking for patients, patients looking for doctors Friday, November 22, 2024 22:00 KBS 1TV ■ I am the last rural doctor Director Lee Jong-gyu, who has been practicing for 20 years in Pyeonghae-eup, Uljin-gun, Gyeongbuk. For the 7,000 residents living in one town and two townships, this director's family medicine clinic is the only hospital. Despite his age of 74, Director Lee opens the hospital at 8 a.m. and treats an average of 200 patients a day. Although he is well past retirement age, he continues to postpone his retirement because no new doctor has come to Pyeonghae-eup to replace him. When Director Lee retires, the residents of Pyeonghae-eup will have to go further to find a hospital in another town. The same goes for Taebaek-si, Gangwon-do. The only psychiatric clinic here attracts patients from nearby Jeongseon. Although the hospital is always crowded with about 70 patients in the morning, Director Oh Seung-hyun is not optimistic about the future of the hospital. With the local population rapidly decreasing, the number of patients will inevitably decrease. He believes that if that happens, the only remaining psychiatric clinic will eventually disappear. ■ Even a large local hospital collapses The only semi-general hospital in Boeun-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do. Although the hospital is responsible for about 40,000 residents, it cannot perform appendectomy surgeries because there are no surgeons. It is also difficult to perform orthopedic surgeries on time because there are no anesthesiologists. The hospital is constantly looking for doctors, but no matter how much the salary is increased, it is not easy to find doctors who want to come to the area. As the number of doctors decreases, the quality of medical care decreases, and as a result, patients leave the local hospital, repeating a vicious cycle. This difficulty is not limited to Boeun-gun. The only semi-general hospital in Wando-gun, which includes about 200 islands. Residents of nearby islands come to the hospital to see outpatients on the first boat, but the intensive care unit and inpatient rooms are empty. It is impossible to maintain a semi-comprehensive hospital with only routine outpatient care. The paradoxical situation in which hospital profits deteriorate even when it is crowded with outpatients clearly shows the reality that regional hospitals face. ■ Patient Black Hole, Large Metropolitan Hospital Early in the morning, the area in front of Suseo Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul is filled with regional patients heading to large hospitals in Seoul. It costs a lot of time and money every time they go there, but patients still flock to Seoul. The belief that they have to go to a large hospital in Seoul when they are sick is hastening the demise of regional hospitals. Large metropolitan hospitals are continuing to grow in size by building branches and increasing the number of beds. These branches in the metropolitan area are sucking up not only patients but also local medical staff. “They say they are reviewing branches of 11 university hospitals, but we will have no choice but to take many doctors and nurses from the provinces, so what will happen to local medical care?” Interview with Jinhyung Joo, Director of the Regional Dementia Center, Department of Psychiatry, Kangwon National University Hospital - ■ Why are local hospitals disappearing? - Concerns of a local private practitioner Director Youngwoong Jeon, a former surgical specialist at a hospital in the metropolitan area, opened a clinic-level hospital in Bonggae-dong, Jeju City two years ago. He opened the hospital with a loan of nearly 500 million won, but managing the hospital is not easy. It is difficult to maintain the hospital with insurance treatment alone, so he has no choice but to seek survival through non-covered treatments such as intravenous fluid therapy. Director Jeon is constantly conflicted between being a doctor and a manager. According to the 2022 Health and Medical Personnel Survey, the annual salary of pediatricians decreased by about 20 million won, from 129.94 million won in 2010 to 108.75 million won in 2020. During the same period, the annual salary of dermatologists increased by 70% from 179.94 million won to 302.63 million won. Naturally, doctors are increasingly flocking to places where there is more money. “To be honest, this is not the style of management that suits me, so sometimes I wonder why I am doing this. I need to make basic sales, pay my employees’ salaries, and maintain the hospital management to a certain degree before I can think about what’s next.” Jeon Yeong-ung / Interview with a general practitioner in Jeju City - As doctors flocked to places where there was more money, the primary medical market entered a state of endless competition. In the meantime, doctors and hospitals each became self-sufficient. Now, hospitals in areas where patients are decreasing and making no money are rapidly disappearing. Patients in areas looking for hospitals to treat them, and doctors in areas where patients are decreasing and struggling to survive. How is primary medical care in areas represented by private practitioners surviving? Tracking 60 Minutes Episode 1389 "There is no hospital in the countryside Part 1 - Doctors looking for patients, patients looking for doctors" will air on KBS 1TV at 10 p.m. on Friday, November 22, 2024. Copyright ⓒ KBS. All rights reserved. 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