[Reporter’s Notebook] Korea’s medical excellence overshadowed by deepening healthcare crisis < Reporter’s Notebook < Opinion < Article

Recent global rankings have highlighted the excellence of Korean medical institutions, with three hospitals—Samsung Medical Center (3rd), Asan Medical Center (5th), and Seoul National University Hospital (8th)—placing in the top 10 of U.S. Newsweek’s World’s Best Specialized Hospitals for oncology, announced Tuesday, local time.

The achievement is further underscored by the inclusion of four additional Korean institutions in the top 100 — Severance Hospital (23rd), Eunpyeong St. Mary’s Hospital (37th), National Cancer Center (40th), and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (57th).

The accolades extend beyond oncology, with Korean hospitals ranking highly across multiple specialties. Samsung Medical Center, Asan Medical Center, Seoul National University Hospital, and Severance Hospital all placed in the top 100 for numerous fields, including gastroenterology, urology, endocrinology, and orthopedics.

However, these impressive rankings stand in sharp relief against the backdrop of a deepening dispute between the government and the medical community, primarily centered around the government’s plan to significantly increase medical school admissions.

The situation has created a paradox in Korea’s healthcare landscape.

On one hand, the country boasts world-class medical institutions capable of providing cutting-edge treatments across various specialties. On the other, the healthcare system is facing a crisis that threatens its very foundation.

What is the problem?

Despite Korea’s reputation for efficiency and cutting-edge technology in the medical sector, as confirmed by the Newsweek ranking, Korean healthcare has been coping with deep-rooted problems for some time. 

At first glance, it might seem odd that Korea, a country known for its free-market approach, keeps such a tight grip on its healthcare sector. 

The government controls medical fees and requires everyone to have national health insurance. While this ensures everyone can get care, it’s led to some unexpected issues of making enough profit to actually stay in business. 

Consequently, hospitals, including the famous “Big 5” – Seoul National University Hospital, Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, Severance Hospital and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital — have found a way to cope with low government-set fees, which is to see as many patients as possible. 

This means doctors and nurses are overworked, and the quality of care might suffer. These hospitals also rely heavily on low-paid trainee doctors, who have recently left en-masse protesting the government’s policy to sharply increase the medical school admissions quota by 65% in 2025. 

Smaller hospitals and clinics, struggling to compete with the big institutions, have turned to offering treatments that aren’t covered by insurance just to stay afloat, such as cosmetics and plastic surgery. 

The Newsweek rankings, impressive as they may be, risk becoming achievements of the past if the current crisis persists as it has become clear that the potential of these highly-ranked institutions cannot be fully realized if they are unable to operate at capacity due to staffing shortages.

What Korea really needs is a complete overhaul of its healthcare system. This means rethinking how patients are referred to different hospitals, spreading patients more evenly across the country instead of concentrating them in Seoul’s top hospitals, and significantly increasing certain medical practice fees paid by national health insurance. 

It’s also crucial to stop overworking junior doctors and to discourage unnecessary medical treatments.

Most importantly, Korea needs to restore the pride and sense of purpose among its medical professionals. During the recent debacle, the government painted healthcare professionals as greedy, which has hurt the morale of medical professionals.

The government’s actions have made many medical professionals feel undervalued and misunderstood.

The challenge now is to find a resolution that not only maintains Korea’s medical excellence but also ensures that this excellence continues in the future.