Disillusioned trainee doctor quits Korea’s healthcare system, citing ‘demonization’ of physicians < Hospital < Article

A resigned trainee doctor who decided to leave Korea for a foreign country has revealed his decision to an international journal.

Moon Joung-gi, a trainee neurosurgeon at the Catholic University of Korea Uijeongbu St. Mary’s Hospital, recently published an article titled “Why I decided to leave the South Korean healthcare system” in The Lancet Regional Health Western Pacific, a sister journal of the international medical journal The Lancet.

In the article, Dr. Moon said that the doctor-patient bond has been destroyed due to the doctor-government conflict. Moon has been working at a nursing hospital since his resignation in July.

“Despite the incredible challenges of neurosurgery residency, I found fulfillment in the gratitude expressed by patients and their families for the lives I helped save,” he said. “However, I fear I may never connect sincerely with patients again (amid the healthcare crisis after the government unilaterally increased the medical enrollment quota).”

The resigning doctors were portrayed in the media as “criminals and traitors” who “abandoned patients for monetary gain,” and the “demonization of physicians was intense,” Dr. Moon said.

“I resigned in protest of the government’s unsubstantiated and one-sided healthcare reform. Did my resignation deserve such treatment,” he said. “Am I being condemned as selfish for – out of hopelessness – refusing to work 80-hour weeks at below-minimum hourly rates?”

Dr. Moon expressed worries that patients he cared for as a resident would “remember me as someone who left them for money” and that they would see him as an opportunist.

“Was it foolish to believe I had genuinely helped them?” he asked.

Moon also pointed out that the Korean healthcare system faces sustainability issues, but medical professionals’ opinions are not being considered.

“The Korean healthcare system, which has overly relied on the labor of trainees to cut costs, faces one of the world’s lowest birth rates and depleted health insurance finances. However, it is difficult for government officials, physicians, medical students, and the public to engage in extensive discussions about the future direction of the country’s healthcare. The crisis has destroyed the expectation that physicians’ voices will be heard in policymaking.”

Dr. Moon pointed out that many Korean doctors are considering practicing abroad, and he is no exception.

“After much contemplation, I have decided to give up my physician role within the Korean healthcare system,” he said. “I began preparing for a relocation abroad, seeking a safer, more respected, and more predictable clinical environment.”