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.