University hospitals in provincial areas stop nighttime treatment for adult patients

A notice announcing the suspension of nighttime treatment is posted at the entrance of the emergency medical center of Sejong Chungnam National University Hospital on September 3. Reporter Lee Jong-seop

“My daughter complained of a headache, but she almost didn‘t get medical attention.”

A man in his 40s, who met in front of the emergency medical center of Sejong Chungnam National University Hospital in Dodam-dong, Sejong, on September 3, sighed heavily. He visited this place because his high school daughter complained of a headache and their home was nearby. "I didn't know that the treatment was stopped at night. I don't know what to do if I suddenly get sick at night."

The hospital's emergency medical center, which had been operating 24 hours a day, has suspended nighttime treatment since September 1. The pediatric emergency medical center operates normally 24 hours a day, but adults cannot receive medical treatment from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Fifteen specialists have been working in the hospital's emergency room, but four more resigned on the 1st, following four resigned last month, which made it impossible to maintain the 24-hour emergency treatment system. It is the only emergency medical center in Sejong, and urgent patients should visit nearby hospitals in Daejeon, Cheongju, and Cheonan in the future.

Like this, the local emergency medical system is faltering. With trainee doctors leaving major hospitals in droves in protest against the government’s policy to increase medical school admissions, emergency medicine specialists in provincial areas are moving to the Seoul metropolitan area to fill vacancies at hospitals in the capital, creating a “domino effect” that makes it difficult to find doctors in the provinces.

The situation is similar at Konkuk University Chungju Hospital, Kangwon National University Hospital, and Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital. The emergency medical center at Konkuk University Chungju Hospital has been operating the emergency room only from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. since the 1st because five out of seven emergency medical specialists resigned at the same time. “Currently, after 7 p.m., we have no choice but to turn away patients with mild symptoms and treat only severe cases,” said a hospital official.

The impact of the nighttime shutdown has extended to Chungju Medical Center. The number of patients in the emergency room at the medical center, which averaged about 37 per day, has increased to between 40 and 69. At night, the waiting time is sometimes more than an hour. “The number of patients has increased significantly around 7 p.m., when the limited treatment of the emergency room at Konkuk University Hospital begins, and on the 1st, there were more than 30 patients poured in at night, causing some patients with mild cases to be turned away,” said a medical center official.

In Gangwon province, Kangwon National University Hospital in Chuncheon has stopped emergency treatment for adults at night after 6 p.m. since September 2 due to a lack of specialists. This is due to the fact that two out of five emergency room specialists have taken a leave of absence. At Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital, the regional emergency medical center is open 24 hours a day, but the pediatric emergency medical center is only open three days a week in the daytime.

In other regions, emergency rooms are not yet closed. However, as emergency rooms are barely operated due to a lack of manpower caused by the doctors’ strike, there is a possibility of accumulating fatigue of medical staff and disruption in treatment.

At Kyungpook National University Hospital in Daegu, 22 trainee doctors in the emergency room resigned en masse, and seven specialists are now working in three or four shifts to maintain 24-hour operations.

Chosun University Hospital in Gwangju is also operating its emergency room without any restrictions, but as the trainee doctors in charge of the emergency room left the hospital, specialists from other departments are replacing them to maintain the treatment system.

It‘s unclear how long the disruptions in emergency rooms at local hospitals will last. Hospitals with insufficient manpower are hiring emergency medical specialists with higher salaries than before, but they are not being filled.

Kangwon National University Hospital, which is recruiting six emergency medicine specialists and one emergency room specialist, has reportedly been struggling to fill the positions despite posting 16 job openings for emergency room doctors since two years ago.

The government has been deploying military doctors to these hospitals since the 4th of this month, but it is pointed out that it is only a temporary measure and it is difficult to expect the normalization of medical treatment in the short term.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.