KB News Desk
After five failed recruitment attempts, Shinan-gun finally found a senior doctor by tripling its original offer from 11 million won to a pretax monthly salary of 33 million won ($24,100).
The island county in Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City said Monday that it had selected a 61-year-old doctor from six applicants to work at its public health center.
Korea’s senior doctor program recruits experienced physicians aged 60 or older, including retired and soon-to-retire doctors, to work at hospitals and public health centers in areas struggling to fill vacancies.
Shinan posted two recruitment notices last year and three more this year. It initially offered 11 million won a month and later raised the salary to 13 million won, but received no applications.
For its sixth attempt, the county offered 33 million won a month before tax for a five-day workweek. The selected doctor will begin working in October on a one-year contract.
Shinan, an archipelago of 1,004 islands, is one of South Korea’s most medically underserved areas. Eight of its 16 public health subcenters are operating without a doctor.
Some rely on community health practitioners for basic care, while public health doctors based at other facilities rotate among multiple subcenters.
The county said medically underserved areas face structural difficulties in recruiting physicians and called for greater central government support.
It proposed lowering the minimum age for the senior doctor program from 60 to 55 and increasing government funding.
