Boy, 5, dies after 4 hospitals refuse to admit him
Manpower crunch blamed for latest death of a patient denied treatment
The death of a boy following an agonising wait for a hospital bed has put the spotlight on South Korea’s stretched health system which is bracing for further strain after President Yoon Suk-yeol vetoed controversial legislation that promised nurses better working conditions.
The five-year-old, suffering from severe breathing difficulties, died this month after four hospitals in Seoul turned his family away citing a lack of beds or health workers.
A fifth hospital took the boy in as an outpatient and treated him for laryngotracheobronchitis, a respiratory infection, before discharging him.
But the diagnosis and treatment reportedly did not improve his condition and he collapsed. He was rushed to a nearby emergency clinic but died about 40 minutes after his arrival.
The health centre where the boy was initially treated claimed he was allowed to leave after staff assessed his condition was stable, The Korea Herald reported.
His death came during the Children’s Day weekend in early May, when Yoon told a gathering he would establish a system “offering world-class education and healthcare support for every child”.
The boy’s death follows that of a teenager who died after emergency responders were unable to find doctors and hospitals to treat her for serious head injuries.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare came down hard on four hospitals in Daegu, near the capital, for refusing to admit the girl after she fell from a four-storey building.
She died after having a heart attack following a two-hour back-and-forth between hospitals in an ambulance. Responders said they called nearly every hospital in the city but could not find any that would admit the youngster.
The ministry withheld financial subsidies to four hospitals for six months and imposed hefty fines on them. The South Korean Emergency Medical Service Act bans health workers from refusing patients without reasonable grounds.
A range of reasons were given – including a lack of space and an absence of neurosurgical staff – for declining to provide treatment. South Korea has been plagued by a lack of doctors, including specialists. A study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs found the nation is expected to face a shortage of 27,000 doctors by 2035.
It proposed enrolling an additional 1,500 medical students per year, from 2027 to 2050, to make up for the shortfall. The plan sparked fierce opposition from medical professionals – many said the real problems was low pay and weak infrastructure in rural areas – and forced the government to put the matter on hold.
Currently, 3,058 students from the country’s 40 medical schools enter the sector each year. The manpower crunch has taken a toll on health workers as well. A nurse at a Seoul medical centre died last year because there was no doctor on duty to perform brain surgery when she needed it.
Meanwhile, Yoon is also facing the ire of nurses after he overruled a bill aimed at streamlining the responsibilities of doctors and improving their working conditions. The Korean Nurses Association (KNA) last week launched a protest campaign against the president’s veto of the Nursing Act, which came after doctors resisted the law, arguing it would cause arguments among medical professionals.
“The president’s promise to legislate the Nursing Act is full of evidence and records, but the president has broken such pledges and promises,” the Korea JoongAng Daily quoted KNA chief Kim Young-kyung as saying.
The association also plans to collect the licences of nurses for a month and return them to the health ministry as part of its efforts to pressure the government to reconsider its decision.
The president has broken ... pledges and promises [to legislate the Nursing Act]
KIM YOUNG-KYUNG, KOREAN NURSES ASSOCIATION CHIEF