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Over 70% of Korean doctors work six days or more each week: Report

Published: 01 May. 2026, 14:42

Doctors walk down a corridor inside a hospital in Seoul on May 1. [YONHAP]

More than seven in 10 Korean doctors work at least six days a week, with outpatient physicians seeing an average of more than 50 patients a day, according to a report released Friday.

The findings, which are based on an online survey of 1,378 physicians last year by the Medical Policy Research Institute, suggest that the country’s medical work force is stretched too thin.

Respondents to the survey reported working an average of 5.8 days per week, with 55 percent saying they worked six days and 16.6 percent saying they worked all seven.

By contrast, just 3.8 percent said they worked four days or fewer.

Interns logged the longest schedules, averaging 6.3 working days per week, followed by doctors at private clinics who said they worked an average of six days.

Doctors at tertiary hospitals reported the longest average work week at 6.1 days, followed by those at general hospitals and clinics, who said they worked an average of 5.8 days.

Surgeons said they averaged 5.9 days of work a week.

Doctors worked an average of 292.8 days a year, according to the report. Interns and private practitioners again reported the heaviest workloads, while public health doctors, military physicians and salaried hospital doctors worked comparatively fewer days.

The gap between physicians and the broader work force was also stark. Korean doctors worked an average of 2,302.6 hours in 2023, significantly more than the 1,872 hours logged by the average worker.

Patient loads were equally demanding. Outpatient physicians treated an average of 52.2 patients per day, while surgeons handled an average of 4.3 cases daily.

“The issue of physician staffing should move beyond a binary debate over whether there are enough doctors and instead shift to an empirical question about whether the current amount of labor being performed by physicians is sustainable,” said the Medical Policy Research Institute.

While civic and patient groups have argued that increasing the number of doctors is necessary to address shortages outside Seoul and in certain sectors, medical groups oppose expanding the annual medical school intake.

Korea produces few doctors relative to its population compared to other developed countries.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the country had 2.66 practicing physicians per 1,000 people in 2023 — the second-lowest among member countries, just above Japan.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JUNG JONG-HOON [[email protected]]