There are deep concerns about Korean medical care. It is becoming difficult to find doctor who save life inemergency rooms, operating rooms, intensive care units, and rural hospitals. The so-called ‘critical care’ is shakingin its roots. In the meantime, medical professionalism has lost its way. It does not seem appropriate to attribute thecause of the problem to individual doctors. It is not reprehensible for individuals, who are people before doctors,to choose quality of life over a sense of duty. Not only medical staff on site, but also patients, civic groups, media,and politicians began to recognize the seriousness of the problem. This article examines Korean medical care forserious illnesses by dividing them into ‘symptom and sign’, ‘pathophysiology and diagnosis’, and treatment stages.
It was diagnosed that the crisis in Korean medical care was due to the irrationality of philosophyless health carepolicies, doctors choosing work-life balance over a sense of duty, the collapse of the medical delivery system due tothe expansion of large hospitals, and the moral hazard of patients and doctors due to private medical insurance. Asa prescription to save Korean medicine, it was proposed to break away from the short-sighted discussion of ‘costvs capacity’ and build a system that takes into account the restoration of trust between patients and doctors, theenhancement of professionalism, and the transition from normative ethics to positive ethics.