By Kim Se-jeong
The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it will designate 15 more pediatric clinics as Dalbit Children’s Hospitals, increasing to total to 30, to meet soaring demand.
Dalbit hospitals are required to have more than three pediatricians and open until midnight during weekdays and 6 p.m. during weekends and holidays, and provide urgent medical care. In return, each receives up to 180 million won per year from the government.
However, doctors of other small clinics which are not part of the program are opposing the plan because they are losing patients.
An online association for pediatricians, Pednet, has been filled with malicious comments against Dalbit doctors. One doctor was removed from Pednet because of his affiliation with Dalbit.
This pressure even pushed two hospitals to give up their Dalbit designations. Some have difficulty recruiting new doctors because of the program’s bad reputation within the healthcare industry.
“I can understand the pressure,” a manager of one Dalbit hospital in Daegu said. The man surnamed Cho, who is not a doctor, said he had not encountered any retaliation personally. But he said all pediatric clinics suffer financially, and Dalbit could be a big blow to small clinics. Cho’s hospital has 10 pediatricians, which is a relatively large amount. “But we are still struggling financially. I can’t imagine how small clinics manage.” No Dalbit doctors were available for comment.
The government meanwhile seems indifferent to the dispute among pediatricians.
“There’s no change in the government’s plan. We will encourage more Dalbit hospitals to open. For those who are making threats, we will hold them accountable for their actions,” a ministry official said.
The first Dalbit hospital opened in September last year. It treated 100,000 patients in its first four months. Parents welcomed them as they previously had a difficult time finding medical providers open at night or during weekends previously. Emergency rooms are available but are often crowded and are expensive.
Cho said the government should ease medical fee regulation to appease the angry doctors. “The basic fee is kept so low that it’s hard for a local clinic doctor to make ends meet,” he said.