A Hospital Among Korea's Big 5 Delays Emergency Physician Compensation for Nine Months

A hospital, identified as A병원, one of South Korea's top five medical institutions, has reportedly failed to pay its emergency room doctors the increased 'emergency examination fee' for the past nine months, as of the 26th.

In March, following a significant departure of residents, the government raised the emergency examination fee by up to 250% to prevent further attrition among emergency room physicians. The government mandated that more than half of this increase should be directly allocated to the emergency room doctors. Medical professionals have noted that when combined with other allowances, the annual salary for emergency room doctors has risen to over 100 million KRW. The government urged hospitals to expedite the payment of these examination fees to the emergency room staff. However, A병원 has opted for a semi-annual payment schedule, intending to distribute the fees for March to August in the following month, effectively delaying the compensation.

There is speculation within the medical community that A병원 is mindful of discontent among other essential medical departments. Each time the government raised the emergency examination fee this year, there were complaints from doctors in other critical specialties about fairness. A surgical professor from one of the Big 5 hospitals remarked, "The ability to treat patients in the emergency room 24/7 is supported by specialists in other essential departments who are available for emergency surgeries around the clock." Amid ongoing conflicts between medical associations, it is argued that providing emergency room doctors with a monthly allowance of 2 to 4 million KRW (after tax) is inequitable, given that other specialists also endure similar challenges.

Some in the medical field have suggested that the government is overly focused on the highly publicized emergency medicine sector. In this context, A병원 appears to be attempting to minimize the frequency of complaints from other departments by opting for a six-month payment schedule for the emergency examination fees.

However, government officials have stated, "If the emergency room, the first point of contact for critically ill patients, closes, it effectively halts critical care treatment," and assured that compensation for other essential departments would also see significant increases.

Additionally, some medical professionals have pointed out that regional hospitals are facing even greater financial difficulties, which may lead them to allocate examination fees to more urgent financial needs. For instance, a general hospital in the Yeongnam region has only been able to pay a portion of the increased emergency examination fees as allowances.