Thoracic surgeons treat life-threatening ailments such as acute myocardial infarction, lung cancer and esophageal cancer. Thoracic surgery rose from 19,000 cases in 1997 to 37,000 cases in 2005, and the number of heart surgeries tripled over that time period from 3,495 cases to 11,295 cases. But the number of thoracic surgeons entering practice each year has fallen by half from 63 in 1997 to just 33 this year.

Many hospitals in Korea operate with a shortage of thoracic surgeons. In the case of Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center, there are three, but nurses have to support them during open-heart surgery since there are not enough doctors.

It is said that at crowded general hospital cafeterias, all a thoracic surgeon needs to do to get a seat is to shout, “I’m a thoracic surgeon!” and people give up their place. That is because everyone knows thoracic surgeons get only a few hours of sleep a day and barely have enough time to eat. But the only compensation thoracic residents get is W500,000 (US$1=W1,467) more a month in allowance, and that only at state-run hospitals. Those at private hospitals get no additional allowance.

Four or five doctors can spend more than 10 hours in heart valve or other cardiovascular surgery. But the charge for this vital treatment that comes out of the national health insurance plan is W950,000 for heart valve and W1.5 million for other types of cardiovascular surgery. That is just a fraction of the W5 million to W7 million plastic surgeons get for administering hair transplants. And if something goes wrong, then thoracic doctors often get physically threatened and sued by the family of patients. Unless we raise the unreasonably low medical charges for heart and cancer surgery as covered by the national health insurance plan, we may be unable to get heart surgery in Korea 10 years from now.