hankyoreh

After the administrative order

By Choi Yu-bin, staff reporter

Poor residents of Seoul’s Eunpyeong district appreciate Doty Memorial Hospital because it has provided free medical treatment to needy patients for 30 years.

Since its opening, Doty hospital has treated 1.88 million patients and performed 40,000 surgeries. In 2010, it received the grand prize from Asan Social Welfare Foundation in recognition of their excellent service. However, an obstacle has appeared and they are in danger of being prevent from providing free medical care.

On August 10, Eunpyeong District Office issued an administrative order to the hospital that read, ‘Do not provide discounts or exemptions to any patients.’ The order was brought on by neighboring hospitals’ complaints that Doty‘s provision of free care was causing them to lose patients.

An official from the medicine department of the Eunpyeong district public health center said, “As the hospital has good intentions, we do feel pity and tried as hard as we could to save the free treatment. However, the petitioner’s demand is strong and there is nothing we can do, as the treatment did violate the law.”

Article 27 Item 3 of the Medical Service Act prohibits, “exempting or discounting medical expenses”.

The hospital was founded by the Sisters of Mary, a convent formed after the Korean War to help orphans and refugees. It was financed by George Doty, a former Goldman Sachs executive. The hospital provided free care to orphans, the homeless, the poor, foreign workers and others who couldn’t afford to pay. Through departments such as orthopedics, internal medicine, surgery, and gynecology, the hospital cares for 100 outpatients and performs 1-2 surgeries each day.

Doty hospital put up a notice that read

“We give priority to people with no health care insurance or insurance under 50,000 won (US$45) per month. We visited and consulted people directly to determine whether or not they should be eligible for free care,” the hospital official explained. In this case, they exempted the personal share which was 20% of the whole medical cost and charged the rest to the National Health Insurance Corporation to supplement the operating cost of the hospital.

However, after the district office’s administrative order, it became impossible to receive the medical assistant care from the National Health Insurance Corporation unless they receive 20 percent co-payments from the patients. “The hospital is financing half of its costs from the Sisters of Mary and donations, but it is difficult to operate unless we get the medical assistant care from the National Health Insurance Corporation.”

The hospital official said, “We still believe that the people who are at serious health risk and cannot afford the fees should get treatment. I’m frustrated that even though we only helped out those who were really in need, we cannot even do that anymore.”

A member of the Korean Medical Association’s promotion team said, “Even if they claim that the treatment is charity, it is illegal. Also, if the other hospitals go under by the patients driven in to the free treatment, it would have a worse effect on patients over the long term.”

After the administrative order, Doty hospital put up a notice that read, “From now on, we take patient co-payments”. Regardless, the poor still tend to visit the hospital.

“From now on

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