“There are only a handful of specialists, and pediatric surgeons are scattered across different hospitals. We need to gather them in regional hubs to first put out the urgent fires.”
Kim Woong-han, 63 years old, the standing representative of the Korean Pediatric and Adolescent Surgeons Association and a professor of Pediatric Thoracic Surgery at Seoul National University Hospital, emphasized the necessity of so-called ‘regional hub centers’ during an interview with this newspaper. These centers would allow surgeons to share surgical and on-call duties with colleagues. As the limited number of pediatric surgeons are scattered like grains of sand—1-2 people per hospital—the burden of surgeries and on-call shifts, along with associated legal risks, has grown significantly. Many are struggling to endure and eventually leaving the medical field, citing burnout (exhaustion).
Representative Kim stated, “While it’s not easy even in rural areas, we must first establish these hubs to protect the remaining specialists, followed by legal protections and enhanced compensation for medical staff.”
Having served as the chairman of the Korean Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Representative Kim is an authority in pediatric heart surgery. Starting as a resident in Thoracic Surgery at Seoul National University Hospital in 1990, he has treated over 8,000 children with heart diseases at the same hospital to this day.
Representative Kim said, “Even at Seoul National University Hospital, one out of three surgeons capable of pediatric heart surgery recently resigned and left for the United States, and I will retire next year in the second half of the year.” He added, “If we can’t find a successor, only one surgeon will remain. Where can we find another?”
Other hospitals face similar situations. Representative Kim mentioned, “This year alone, I wrote around 10 recommendation letters for pediatricians planning to leave for foreign countries,” and added, “With our generation being the last on the front lines, the next generation of pediatric surgeons may face extinction.” In the field of Pediatric Thoracic Surgery alone, there are only 27 active specialists in the country.
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