What Happened After Raising Salary by 20 Million Won in Remote Island With 'Zero Applicants'

A massive number of applicants have flocked to a senior doctor recruitment drive launched by a local government in South Jeolla Province, an area facing poor medical infrastructure.

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

While three previous recruitment drives during the first half of this year drew zero applicants, this time was different.

The county explained that the surge is believed to be driven by a significant salary increase, with the monthly pay raised by 20 million won from 13 million won to 33 million won.

Seeking to secure experienced doctors to improve healthcare accessibility for residents in medically underserved areas, the county accepted applications until yesterday for one "senior doctor" position open to physicians aged 60 or older.

The number of public health doctors specializing in medicine in Shinan County dropped by 28.6% in a single year, falling from 21 in 2025 to 15 this year.

Consequently, doctors have not been assigned to eight out of the 16 health clinics within its jurisdiction, accounting for about half of them.

Currently, a single public health doctor from a nearby medical facility rotates through up to four health clinics once or twice a week to continue patient care.

However, given the region's characteristics of having a high proportion of elderly residents and patients with chronic diseases, such rotating care has limitations in meeting continuous medical demand, making the securement of stable medical personnel necessary.

In response, the county offered unprecedented compensation to secure essential medical staff.

The working conditions offer a pre-tax monthly salary of 33 million won for a five-day workweek, and 27.64 million won (Note: 26.4 million won) for a four-day workweek.

The county established these compensation standards after comprehensively considering difficulties in securing medical personnel due to rotational work including remote island regions, high clinical experience requirements, and a decrease in public health doctors.

The newly hired doctor will rotate through health centers and clinics to handle general medical treatment, preliminary examinations for vaccinations, and various certificate diagnoses.

They will also carry out pilot projects for non-face-to-face and remote cooperative diagnosis targeting health facilities where medical public health doctors are not assigned.

Shinan County Mayor Kim Tae-sung said, "We will continuously supplement the medical care system in medically vulnerable areas so that island residents can receive medical services equivalent to those in urban areas."

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