By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Many hospitals are suffering from a shortage of nurses following an unprecedented expansion of large-sized hospitals in Seoul. The deficiency is expected to get worse with only a couple of nurse-consuming healthcare programs set to take effect soon.
The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) predicted Sunday that more than 5,400 more nurses will be necessary by 2010 and 18,200 by 2020.
The numbers based on the current Medical Law, which stipulates a full-time nurse must work a maximum 255 days a year and look after 2.5 inpatients, or 45 outpatients on average each day.
KIHASA said if the working period were set to 265, a shortage would not take place until 2015, adding it was only a matter of time before a deficiency was seen across hospitals nationwide.
The Severance Hospital in Sinchon, northwestern Seoul, has recruited more than 70 nurses each year after the completion of a new hospital wing in 2005. It also plans to recruit more nurses this year.
Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul will employ more than 700 nurses this year alone to prepare for its cancer-specialized hospital set to open next year.
The three other big hospitals ― Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, the Veterans Hospital and Chung-Ang University Medical Center ― will also each be hiring 500 workers.
``We have recently raised the monthly salary of nurses by 5 percent, improved their working conditions to retain them. But the number of nurses has plunged to 90 from 120 last year,'' said a doctor running a mid-size hospital in Gyeonggi Province.
A couple of policies, initially set to improve public healthcare, is fueling the labor shortage.
Since last year, hospital subsidies have been dependent on the number of nurses they employ ― the more nurses they have, the bigger the subsidy.
Also, a new insurance program will be introduced in July next year for senior citizens suffering from diseases such as Alzheimer's. In addition, it will become mandatory for each school to hire at least one nurse as a full-time healthcare instructor from March.
The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs hiked the quota for nursing schools by 500 this year and 950 for next year.
The Korean Hospital Association said the quota move was a makeshift measure.
``Many nurses hesitate to work due to low salary and poor working conditions,'' an association official said.
Noting that more than 75,000 license holders have already quit hospitals because of physical difficulties, the official said, adding that more incentives were needed to bring them back to hospitals.
But Lee No-kook, a retired nurse in her 50s blamed hospitals for only seeking younger nurses in their 20s and 30s.
``I've contacted hospitals to start work again but hospitals are reluctant to hire me,'' she complained. Observers predict that Korea may import foreign nurses in the future to cope with the shortage.