[News Today] GOV’T TO RECRUIT MORE RESIDENTS

[LEAD]
Following low application rates, the government will initiate additional recruitment of trainee doctors starting tomorrow. To address the emergency room overload, military and public health doctors will be deployed. The government is also moving to increase costs for mild cases in emergency rooms.

[REPORT]
Starting Friday, the government will recruit additional trainee doctors.

First-year resident doctors may apply until August 14th while those between second and fourth year may do so until August 16th.

Recruiting resumed as only 104 medical residents or about 1.4% of all eligible trainee doctors signed up for the second-half recruitment program that ended last month.

Jeong Yoon-soon / Ministry of Health and Welfare
I'm disappointed that not enough residents applied for the program. The ministry will extend the recruitment period to provide as many chances as possible for the resident doctors to return.

The government's plan is to have the selection process for each hospital completed by the end of this month and start the second-half training program in September.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare tabulated that 1,091 resident doctors returned to the hospitals as of August 5th.

Out of some 5,700 resigned residents, about 11% or 625 doctors were hired by general hospitals.

That is more than double the number from the previous week.

Assistance programs were set up to relieve emergency room loads caused by the departure of resident doctors.

The government will subsidize incentives for ER doctors and night duty pay for substitute doctors while sending additional public health doctors and military doctors to regional and local emergency centers that are short of ER medical staff.

Also, patients with mild symptoms will be allowed to be transported to local emergency facilities while the government looks for ways to have mildly ill patients cover a greater portion of costs for using ERs.

The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine welcomed the fact that their opinions were reflected in the policy, but found it disappointing that the measures were announced only after patients experienced inconvenience.