Of the emergency patients being turned away by hospitals, 40% were due to doctor shortage

A medical staff at the emergency room of Asan Medical Center in Seoul is moving a patient on a gurney on July 3. (Yonhap)

Of cases in which hospitals refused to take emergency patients, 41.9 percent occurred because the hospital lacked the necessary medical staff to take care of the patient, fire agency data has shown.

From 2023 to June of 2024, there were 4,227 cases across the country in which a hospital refused to admit an emergency patient taken there by ambulance, according to the National Fire Agency data provided to the Rep. Kim Sun-min of the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party. Of those cases, 1,771 had been because the hospital did not have an attending doctor who could give the necessary treatment.

A total of 635 cases happened because of the lack of hospital beds, 454 of which involved lack of beds in emergency rooms.

The data also showed that there were 84 cases in which a patient had been turned down by two hospitals, 14 cases with three refusals, and 16 cases with four refusals.

Between January and June of this year, ambulances carrying emergency patients were turned away 2,645 times, 1,081 of which were because of a lack of doctors.

According to the most recent figures by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, South Korea has 2.6 practicing doctors per 1,000 people, considerably lower than the OECD average of 3.7 and only higher than Mexico's 2.5 among the member states. The government has been seeking to increase the number of doctors here, with a plan to raise the medical school quota beginning next year.

But the majority of physicians here have been opposing the government plan, going on a nationwide medical strike since February. A recent survey on 4,010 doctors by the Research Institute for Healthcare Policy showed that 81.7 percent of the respondents are against the quota hike, with 49.9 percent saying that there are "already enough doctors in the country."

A coalition of 92 organizations representing people suffering from illness held a joint protest last week protesting the medical strike, urging the doctors and the government to reach an agreement to end the ongoing medical dispute.