Healthcare Crisis: Critical Shortage of Physicians
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Primary care physicians are the doctors who help you with all aspects of your health. They are the first person people go to when people feel their health decline. While South Korea is well known for its healthcare quality, Korea is losing physicians each year, showing no signs of the statistics rising. Without any help, South Korea will face a shortage by 2035.
There are multiple reasons that could be attributed to South Korea’s shortage of primary care physicians.
One main cause is Korea’s culture for pursuing medical specialties. South Korea’s generalists typically receive a paycheck of 8,420,000 KRW. While generalists do get salaries that are above average on any typical job, it does not compare to some of the salaries people could receive as a specialist. For example, Physicians in Cardiology get 14,600,000 KRW and Invasive Cardiologists can receive up to 16,100,000 KRW, almost twice the salary of a generalist. As a result, many students in medical school choose to follow the path toward medical specialization.
Specialists not only earn a greater amount of money but also have access to numerous training opportunities. South Korea has many options that students can take in order for medical graduates to become specialists. For example, Medical Korea Academy (MKA) is a training program that aids students in learning knowledge and skills to become specialists. The availability and prestige of these programs can make specialization an attractive path for students to take.
While many medical students are choosing to take other paths than general medicine, there is also an increasing demand for primary care services due to the aging population. According to Statistics Korea, “the proportion of the population aged 65+ is expected to rise from 17.5 percent to 46.4 percent” by 2070. Korea has one of the highest aging rates in the world which, as a result, causes a higher demand for primary care physicians that can not be met. As people grow older, they are more prone to medical illnesses such as cancer, arthritis, chronic kidney disease, stroke, and many more. Therefore, it is essential for the elderly to have easy access to primary care physicians.
However, now that primary care is becoming less and less available to the population, there are severe consequences that can happen to the community.
As many can expect, there would be limited access to care for many people. Therefore, patients may have their diagnoses delayed, which can result in the illnesses growing into something severe and permanent. For example, cancer at its early stages can be easier to treat and much cheaper in health cost as it does not require many treatments that may be required in later stages. However, as diagnoses get delayed and cancer grows into later stages, it becomes harder to recover and many people have to sacrifice much more money and time to increase their chances in healing.
In addition, primary care affects the economy of individuals as well as communities. Patients who cannot access primary care may go towards emergency room visits or even specialist consultations which result in much higher healthcare costs. The consulting and the resources that are used in these options are much higher in average than a simple meeting with a generalist. This takes more money out of peoples’ pockets as well as the healthcare system as a whole. Healthcare systems will need to purchase additional resources and staff in order to supply for the increased patient load from the lack of primary care.
Without any changes, Korea will face a shortage of around 27,000 physicians by 2035, and it will only grow worse from then on.
In order to address the shortage of primary care physicians, the position must become worthy of its necessity. If there were more training programs that are efficient and of good quality as specialists, students may choose that option as it can help medical students enter the workforce faster. This would be appealing as students can quickly go through the steps in order to become a doctor and earn their paychecks faster.
Another way for the issue to be resolved could be an increase in medical school enrollment. As of now, Korea’s path to get into medical school is extremely rigorous. Students typically take the CSAT twice and devote their whole lives to studying. However, most prestigious medical schools only have an acceptance rate of 17 percent or higher. Not only is it hard to get accepted into schools, but it also requires at least 6 years and around 10 million KRW to complete a medical degree in Korea. Therefore, if medical degrees were easier to achieve, then it could provide an incentive for more students to pursue primary care or medical jobs in general.
The shortage of primary care physicians is a growing issue that must be resolved before it becomes irreversible. By creating more of an incentive for inspiring doctors to become primary care physicians, Korea may be able to avoid this shortage and continue to be one of the top-ranking healthcare providers to its citizens.