Private Doctor Industry Booms in NK

Private doctors — often dubbed
“famed doctors” — are more popular these days than those languishing in North Korea’s state-run hospitals. Meager pay and overall poor working conditions have prompted an exodus of doctors from these institutions, seeing them head outside the confines of state medical facilities to offer personal medical services instead. 

“Provincial, municipal, and county hospitals have very few patients and feel so desolate,” a source from North
Hamkyung Province reported to Daily NK on the 24th. “On the other hand, there
are lines of patients in front of the houses of individual doctors in each
region, who have come to be renowned for their competence.”
 

State-run hospitals and clinics in North
Korea are notorious for prescribing medication without the ability to provide
it. While the nation receives some international pharmaceutical aid, Party cadres often appropriate much of it for
personal use or bribes; in other cases, these medications end up
circulating at the markets.
 

Moreover, the source attested that the
doctors in these facilities are novices at best, fresh out of medical and
vocational schools without the ability to treat illnesses–let alone diagnose
them. “On the contrary, individual doctors are quite popular because they are
very experienced and have direct access to medications,” he pointed out.
  

The most renowned doctors are those who previously ranked
as section chiefs or served in special wards within the hospitals.
Leaving the state-run institutions has afforded them the opportunity to tend to
patients in their homes or make house calls to the donju [new affluent middle class] or Party cadres,
bumping up their profit margins exponentially, according to the source.
 

This abundance of time and flexibility is something rather
unfathomable for those still affiliated with any state-run enterprise in North Korea: in this case, hospitals. In addition to daily compulsory morning meetings about work-related
projects mixed in with ideological study sessions, ahead of any major national
holiday–Chosun Workers’ Party Foundation Day, Kim Il Sung’s birthday, Kim Jong
Il’s birthday, National Independence Day, etc.–these institutions must host
celebratory events, which require all personnel to engage in group song and dance to honor
the Kim dynasty.
 

Practice sessions typically commence a
month ahead of the events, stripping the physicians of time that should be spent on patient care. These tight parameters prevent doctors from seeing any patients prior to noon, after
which “the doctors cursorily visit their wards about once a day, leaving the
rest of the treatments to the nurses,” according to the source.

“Private doctors may lack perfect medical
facilities but they make up for it with ample experience and skills; they even
have a wide net of pharmacists and practical nurses at their disposal, all of whom are poised to produce the necessary medication,” he explained. “These doctors are available to
provide treatment whenever, wherever, making them a highly sought-after
service.”
 

The cost of such services varies largely on a given patient’s affliction. Shingles or similar ailments run in the range of
150,000-200,000 KPW [18.75-25 USD]. A visit to a state-run hospital for the same patient,
however, would run him or her around 130,000 KPW [16.25 USD], but in order to access proper treatment and
medications, bribes to medical personnel inevitably drive up the costs, quickly emptying
the pockets of patients desperate for medical care.
 

For this reason, high-ranking officials do
nothing to crack down on doctors practicing from their homes–despite the
official ban on private operations by the state. After all, as Party cadres comprise a significant portion of the doctors’ client base, regulating their activities would only prove to be self-sabotaging.