Sudden resignation of lone cancer specialist leaves 200 patients in limbo in Gyeongju
A lone hematology-oncology specialist’s abrupt resignation leaves patients without care at Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital. gettyimagesbank
Around 200 patients with serious illnesses in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, face a treatment crisis after the abrupt resignation of the only hematology-oncology specialist at Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital, the largest medical center in the region.
With no law requiring advance notice, the doctor’s departure left patients scrambling to find new care, exposing the fragility of regional healthcare systems already struggling with physician shortages and capital-area concentration.
The hospital notified patients on July 28 that their doctor would only be available until July 30. Many, including inpatients, were forced to seek transfers to other hospitals on short notice, according to officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Tuesday.
For 86-year-old Kim Dong-woo, who had been undergoing treatment for lymphoma since March, the timing was critical. Discharged after successful chemotherapy, he contracted pneumonia and needed urgent follow-up.
His family could not find another facility to admit him, and his condition worsened, landing him in the ICU where he is now being treated only for pneumonia.
Kim’s son, Kim Tae-hee, said, “We trusted the hospital and the doctor, but in the most critical moment, the attending physician disappeared. If we had been told even a month earlier, we could have looked for another hospital with a hematology-oncology department.”
Local medical officials say the crisis was foreseeable. The doctor had been treating 200 patients alone since the department’s other specialist resigned late last year and had already signaled an intention to leave.
The hospital said the specialist submitted a resignation on June 2, reconsidered after being promised better conditions, then abruptly quit again on July 28. “In regional hospitals, losing even one doctor can shake the entire system,” a hospital official said.
The resignation came despite the hospital’s selection for the health ministry's Comprehensive Secondary General Hospital Support Program, which invests 2.1 trillion won ($1.5 billion) over three years to strengthen non-capital hospitals’ capacity.
Kim Tae-hee, 48, expresses regret in a letter to his father’s departing doctor after the sudden resignation left hematology-oncology patients at Dongguk University Gyeongju Hospital without care. Courtesy of Kim
Patients and advocates point out there is no legal framework to protect them in such cases. “Even if care stops overnight, there’s no law to punish or prevent it,” said a Gyeongju public health center. A ministry official confirmed there is no regulation specifying how far in advance doctors must notify patients of treatment termination.
Nam Eun-kyung of the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice called the case “a stark example of the medical gap in non-capital areas” and urged structural solutions such as training local doctors through public medical schools.
Kim Tae-hee described his father as a decorated Korean War veteran who raised five children despite life-changing injuries. “I will try to understand the circumstances of the hospital and the doctor,” he said. “But I will live with the guilt of not taking him to a Seoul hospital, and with the regret of not talking more with him while I could.”
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.