More than seven out of 10 Korean doctors, including medical residents and private practitioners, work six days or more per week, a survey showed.
The findings were included in a report titled "Working Hours of Korean Doctors," released Sunday by the Research Institute for Healthcare Policy of the Korean Medical Association. The survey was conducted on 1,378 doctors nationwide from September to October last year.
According to the report, the average number of working days for all respondents in 2023 was 5.8 days per week.
In detail, 71.6% of respondents said they work six or more days per week. Those working six days a week accounted for 55.0%, while 16.6% worked seven days a week. Five-day workers made up 24.5%, and those working four days or fewer made up 3.8%.
Medical residents and interns had the longest working hours, at 6.3 days per week. Private practitioners followed with 6.0 days.
By age, doctors aged 24 to 29 worked the longest at 6.1 days per week. Working hours decreased with age, with doctors aged 70 or older working the shortest at 5.5 days per week.
By specialty, surgical doctors worked the longest at 5.9 days per week. Internal medicine and general practice doctors worked 5.8 days.
By type of institution, doctors at tertiary general hospitals worked the longest at 6.1 days per week. Those at general hospitals and clinics worked 5.8 days, while those at hospitals worked 5.6 days.
Saturday workers accounted for 79.7% of the total, and Sunday workers made up 19.8%. Among medical residents, 55.1% worked on Sundays and 80.3% worked on public holidays. Among private practitioners, 95.9% worked on Saturdays.
The annual average number of working days for doctors was 292.8 days, and the monthly average was 24.4 days. Medical residents again had the longest working days at 308.5 days per year, followed by private practitioners at 300.1 days. Public health doctors worked 262.5 days, military doctors 263.3 days, and salaried doctors 286.5 days, all relatively fewer.
Outpatient doctors saw an average of 52.2 patients per day, while surgeons performed operations on an average of 4.3 patients per day.
"The annual working hours of Korean doctors stand at 2,302.6 hours, longer than those of general Korean workers (1,872 hours) and general OECD workers (1,719 hours)," the report said. "Before concluding that there is an absolute shortage of medical personnel, this shows that existing workforce estimation studies have underestimated the actual labor input in the medical field compared to reality."
The report added, "The fact that working hour gaps emerged according to age, job type, institution, and specialty clearly shows the limitations of estimates based on a simple headcount. Even for the same 'one doctor,' the actual volume of medical services provided differs, so the workforce estimation method needs to be changed going forward."
