What Happened After a Remote Island With 'Zero Applicants' Raised Salaries by 20 Million Won

A local government in South Jeolla and Gwangju, which suffers from poor medical facilities, received a large number of applicants for its senior doctor recruitment.

Sinan County, Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, announced today (August 19) that six people applied for the open recruitment of senior doctors.

While three rounds of open recruitment conducted in the first half of this year yielded zero applicants, this time was different.

The county explained that the surge in applicants is likely due to the county raising the monthly salary by 20 million won from 13 million won, offering a total of 33 million won.

Seeking to secure experienced doctors to improve medical accessibility for residents in medically vulnerable areas, the county held an open recruitment until yesterday for one "senior doctor" aged 60 or older.

Currently, the number of public health doctors specializing in medicine in Sinan County has decreased by 28.6% in just one year, falling from 21 in 2025 to 15 this year.

As a result, 8 out of the 16 health clinics within the jurisdiction—nearly half—currently lack assigned doctors.

At present, a single public health doctor from a neighboring medical institution is rotating through up to four health clinics once or twice a week to continue medical services.

However, given the region's characteristics of a high proportion of elderly residents and patients with chronic diseases, such rotational care has limitations in meeting continuous medical demands, making it necessary to secure stable medical personnel.

To address this and secure essential medical staff, the county offered unprecedented compensation.

The working conditions offer a pre-tax monthly salary of 33 million won for a five-day workweek, or 26.4 million won per month for a four-day workweek.

The county established these compensation standards by comprehensively considering factors such as rotational work including island areas, high clinical experience requirements, and difficulties in securing medical personnel due to the decrease in public health doctors.

The newly hired doctor will rotate among health centers and health clinics to handle general medical treatment, preliminary examinations for vaccinations, and the diagnosis and issuance of various certificates.

In addition, the doctor is scheduled to carry out pilot projects for non-face-to-face and telemedicine cooperative consultations targeting health institutions where medical public health doctors are not assigned.

Sinan County Mayor Kim Tae-sung said, "We will continue to supplement the medical care system in medically vulnerable areas so that island residents can receive the same level of medical services as those in urban areas."

(Photo: Yonhap News / Provided by Sinan County)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.