Amid prolonged doctors' strike, Korea faces critical cardiology shortage

A medical staff walks down the hallway of a Seoul hospital, July 14. (Yonhap)

South Korea's health care system is grappling with a severe shortage of cardiology residents as a nationwide doctors' strike enters its seventh month. Recent data from The Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery reveals that only 12 of the country's 107 cardiology residents are still on duty.

The study, conducted over three days last week, shows 75 residents have resigned and 20 have pending resignation requests. Several major regions, including Gangwon and North Chungcheong Provinces, are now entirely without cardiology residents.

Under South Korea's centralized health care system, the Health Ministry annually sets nationwide residency quotas by specialty and region. Specialties within emergency medicine and critical care have traditionally struggled to attract candidates due to long working hours and limited career prospects.

Cardiology residents face particularly demanding schedules, working an average of 102.1 hours a week in 2022 — 30 percent above that of residents across all medical specialties, according to data by the Korean Intern Resident Association. The excessive workload has made cardiology residencies chronically unpopular, with only 21 doctors applying for 56 cardiology residency positions in major hospitals for the upcoming academic year.

The current strike has critically exacerbated these preexisting understaffing problems. Without proper intervention, only six new cardiac surgeons are projected to enter the workforce next year, far below the number needed to maintain adequate cardiac care services.

The Society stressed that current staffing levels are critically insufficient to meet national medical demands and called for swift action to resolve the prolonged stalemate.

"With only 12 residents, it's simply impossible to perform the country's annual 20,000 heart and lung cancer surgeries," the Society said in a statement. "Urgent measures are needed to create conditions that will bring striking residents back to their patients."