'Distress' as doctor shortage, language barrier hinder foreigners' access to urgent care

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'Distress' as doctor shortage, language barrier hinder foreigners' access to urgent care

Published: 06 May. 2025, 07:00

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Medical workers unload a patient from an ambulance parked in front of the emergency room of a major hospital in Seoul on Feb. 22, 2024. [YONHAP]

When a slight rash appeared above her eyebrows, Charlotte — a 35-year-old teacher working in Korea — initially thought it was caused by irritation from her new facial cleanser and hoped the inflamed patch would go away if she washed her skin with only water.

But over the following week, the redness gradually spread, eventually covering her face in painful pustules and leaving her “distraught.”

Charlotte first sought treatment at a small dermatology clinic, but the doctor there was baffled after medication failed to halt the spread of the inflammation. The dermatologist subsequently referred Charlotte to Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital in Yongsan District, central Seoul, where she was asked a few questions, prescribed more medication and given a steroid shot.

When that course of treatment also failed to alleviate her symptoms, Charlotte tried booking appointments at other major hospitals, only to find they would not take her.

“A Korean friend came over to my house and called the emergency wards at Samsung Medical Center and Severance Hospital, but they declined to admit me,” she told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Sunday. Neither would the dermatology departments at both hospitals, which told her she could see one of their specialists in two to three months.

“It was scary to ask for help and being essentially told not to come,” she said. “Being unable to access care added to the pain of my physical symptoms and not being able to work.”

A photo of the inflammed pustules that spread over Charlotte's face, which she provided to the Korea JoongAng Daily. [CHARLOTTE]

Charlotte is not alone among foreigners in Korea who have been denied specialist care as the staffing shortages at hospitals nationwide drag on.

Although the government decided in March to abandon a plan to increase annual medical recruitment that sparked a yearlong strike by residents in February last year, junior doctors have been slow to return to their posts.

As residents were mostly responsible for inpatient care at major hospitals before the strike, their absence has left specialists and senior doctors overwhelmed, forcing many patients to navigate denials, delays and distress with little help.

Some foreigners who don’t speak Korean have found their inability to communciate their concerns at critical moments can compound the difficulty of accessing necessary care amid the ongoing staffing shortages at hospitals.

Hospitals pass the baton

An American man who lives in Seoul told the Korea JoongAng Daily that his retired mother, visiting from the United States last month, was turned away from Severance Hospital despite her family’s fears that she was suffering a stroke and needed urgent care.

“She suddenly experienced a severe headache, facial numbness, blurred vision, profuse sweating, nausea and near loss of consciousness,” he said. “Someone assisted us with interpretation, but there was a language barrier at Severance, and the emergency room staff declined to admit her after checking her vitals.”

The American man, who declined to be named to maintain his family’s privacy, also said the 119 emergency hotline sent him a list of hospitals to call on his own — despite his inability to speak Korean — to find an available emergency room bed elsewhere for his mother.

His experience is reflected in recent data on interhospital transfers of emergency cases.

According to documents from the National Fire Agency, 104 patients brought by ambulance to emergency rooms had to be rerouted to other hospitals during this year’s Lunar New Year holiday period, which lasted from Jan. 23 to 30.

That figure is more than double the 47 transfers during the same holiday period the previous year and the 51 transfers in 2023.

In one well-reported instance in March, a Vietnamese woman in her 30s gave birth in an ambulance after she was turned away from Inha University Hospital while waiting for admission to another emergency room.

While the American man said his mother eventually received “excellent care at another hospital with help from third-party entities,” not all could quickly access alternative health providers.

For instance, Charlotte was accompanied by her friend back to Soon Chun Hyang for another appointment, where she said the doctors “made an effort to communicate in English,” but “didn’t seem like they had the time to answer or consider questions” about the underlying cause of her symptoms.

“They later concluded it was rosacea, but they didn’t offer a long-term treatment or management plan,” she said, noting their approach seemed focused on “getting rid of the symptoms quickly.”

“Eventually, friends referred me to a family medicine doctor who recommended helpful changes in my diet, behavior and other possible factors, but it took a lot of research on my part.”

Botched treatments

When Ben, a 32-year-old Israeli marketing executive, discovered a raised bump on his lower left leg, he initially thought it was a bug bite.

But after a similar bump appeared on his outer right leg and grew painful and purple, he sought advice from multiple doctors.

“All of them said the lumps were caused by stress and not a real problem,” he told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “It was only when I met a nice doctor that I could obtain a referral for surgery.”

However, Ben’s troubles didn’t end there.

“The doctor who operated on me left a huge, unnecessary incision that was badly stitched and later began to tear open. At the checkup, he told me it was all right, but the wound got infected.”

From left, the lump on Ben's right leg before his operation and after the stitches inserted by his surgeon began to fail. [BEN]

Like Charlotte, Ben found the doctors he met were reluctant to engage his questions on the cause of his symptoms.

“I’ve noticed that they appear stressed and apprehensive about dealing with me because I’m a foreigner,” he said, adding that the consultations were “short and leave much to be desired in terms of explanation and choice of treatment.”

Relying on Korean speakers

According to data released by the Health Ministry and Korea Health Industry Development Institute on April 5, the number of foreign medical tourists coming to Korea surpassed 1.17 million in 2024, a 93.2 percent increase from the previous year’s figure.

However, the vast majority of these tourists sought elective treatments, with 56.6 percent receiving dermatological procedures and another 11.4 percent undergoing plastic surgery.

While these clinics often provide such patients with interpreters, foreign residents and visitors who find themselves in need of urgent care have conversely reported difficulty finding English-language resources.

For example, Charlotte noted that a friend accompanied her on her initial visits to Soon Chun Hyang, where he translated for the doctor.

Likewise, Ben said he relied first on a friend and then colleagues to help him talk to doctors.

“If I had just arrived in Korea, I imagine I would have had even more difficulty during a medical appointment,” he said. “I’ve lived here five years, so I’m used to the reluctance of some Koreans to interact with me, but it’s frustrating in a situation like this all the same.”

Foreign residents of the capital can receive advice from the Seoul Global Center, which operates a 24-hour medical referral service, as well as state-run Medical Korea Information Centers in Seoul and Incheon.

For those outside Seoul, however, options remain more limited.

Some foreign patients who encountered difficulty accessing necessary treatments told the Korea JoongAng Daily on condition of anonymity that their embassies helped them find a suitable hospital.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]