Low birth rate, wages lead to fewer students in pediatrics

A medical staff passes by Seoul National University Children's Hospital in Jongro District, central Seoul, on Jan. 31. [NEWS1]

Faced by low birth rates and relatively low wages, medical students are thinking twice before applying for residency at arduous yet essential departments.

Of all Korean university hospitals with a pediatrics department, Seoul National University Hospital was the only hospital that had full resident enrollment in pediatrics this year, according to data that the Health Ministry submitted to Democratic Party lawmaker Seo Young-seok.

Of the 50 university hospitals with pediatrics, 38 didn’t receive any applications for residency and and only four had application rates higher than 50 percent.

More medical students are avoiding pediatrics as the years pass.

In 2021, of all available pediatrics residencies open, the enrollment rate was 36 percent. In 2022, the rate dropped to 22 percent, and further down to 20 percent this year.

That is less than one-fourth of all other medical departments, which on average had 84 percent of their spots filled.

The plummeting number of pediatricians has made some hospitals in the metropolitan area stop hospital treatment and emergency nighttime clinics, from the end of last year.

Some other departments are seeing zero residency applications this year.

There was no residency application for the thoracic surgery department in 18 hospitals, general surgery in 17, obstetrics and gynecology in 16 and pathology in 21.

A total of eleven departments, including plastic surgery, orthopedics, dermatology, otolaryngology, neuropsychiatry, ophthalmology, radiology and neurology, had full enrollment.

“Special countermeasures are necessary to secure talents in some compulsory fields,” Seo said. “Simultaneous efforts such as increasing the medical student quota and wage are required.”

BY LEE HAY-JUNE [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]