Flood of medical professor resignations exacerbates Korea’s regional healthcare divide

A student wearing a graduate gown is seen inside a medical school building in Seoul on Feb. 24. [YONHAP]

A total of 467 medical professors resigned even before reaching their retirement age last year, accounting for nearly 75 percent of all medical professors who resigned nationwide.

According to data from the Ministry of Education submitted to Rebuilding Korea Party Rep. Kang Kyung-sook’s office on Monday, 623 medical professors stepped down from their teaching professions last year.

The figure rose from 577 in 2023.

The number of medical professors who took early retirement also grew steadily over the last three years, from 299 in 2022 to 379 in 2023.

Medical schools outside the greater Seoul area saw more severe faculty losses.

A total of 72 medical professors left Inje University in South Gyeongsang last year — 64 left on early retirement and eight on regular retirement.

“Professors did not specify their reasons for resigning but just said they wanted to get some rest,” an Inje University spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that professors are exhausted, working overnight two or three times a week while simultaneously covering daytime shifts.

Since junior doctors launched a walkout last February, the work burden on medical professors has intensified as they cover treatments and medical tasks that used to be managed by their trainees.

Hallym University’s medical school in Gangwon followed with 41 professors resigning, while 38 medical professors from Eulji University in Daejeon left their positions.

Yonsei University and Seoul National University — with medical schools in Seoul — saw 34 and 23 medical professors resign, respectively. However, most of the professors who resigned from those schools retired due to age.

Medical staff walk inside a general hospital in Seoul on Feb. 19. [NEWS1]

With student quota expansions in medical schools nationwide creating more professor seats in the greater Seoul area, many medical professors in provincial regions appeared to have left to seize new opportunities in and near the capital.

“There is no way to dissuade medical professors from going to Seoul,” an official from a university hospital in the Jeolla region said. “It’s hard to hire medical professors even if our hospital posts recruitment notices all year round.”

A cardiothoracic surgeon and professor who used to work at a hospital in the Gyeongsang region decided to work in a university hospital in Gyeonggi, the province surrounding Seoul.

However, university hospitals in Gyeonggi have also suffered from faculty losses as professors flock to the bright lights of the capital.

Three anesthesiology professors at one Gyeonggi-based university hospital resigned, with two now working at a large hospital in Seoul.

A spokesperson from the Gyeonggi-based hospital said the tendency for large and tertiary hospitals in Seoul to swallow up medical professors from across the nation has worsened since the impasse between the medical community and government began last year.

“We are trying to add medical professors from provincial hospitals,” they said.

One professor of emergency medicine in the greater Seoul region noted that his colleagues moved to other schools offering better employment conditions or opened private clinics after their work burden increased due to the collective walkout by junior doctors.

“The enrollment hike triggered employment opportunities among professors and prompted consecutive job transfers which were accompanied by resignations” at regional hospitals, the professor said.

Rep. Kang said medical reforms that aimed to revive regional and essential medical services have “devastated” provincial medical services. She urged the government to “prepare measures to overcome the national crisis,” seemingly referring to crippled medical services.