Seven of the nine specialists at Ajou University Hospital’s pediatric emergency medical center have told the hospital that they intend to resign, raising the prospect of a major staffing loss at a facility that serves children across southern Gyeonggi Province. The group includes the center’s director, according to reporting based on the hospital’s confirmation. The doctors have expressed their intentions, but the available evidence does not establish that their departures have taken effect.
The dispute follows a police search of the center on September 30. The investigation concerns the death of a four-month-old infant from Uzbekistan who received emergency treatment at the hospital on July 15 after arriving with cyanosis. The child’s parents alleged medical negligence and filed a complaint, prompting the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police to investigate the treatment and search clinical areas at the center.
A patient-death investigation reaches the emergency center
Medical organizations argue that the search was excessive and inflicted psychological harm on clinicians working in an already sensitive field. They say the prospect of criminal investigation following an unsuccessful emergency intervention can make pediatric specialists reluctant to continue treating high-risk cases. The reported resignations connect that concern to a specific operational threat: losing seven specialists together would leave only two of the center’s nine current physicians, if all seven ultimately depart and no replacements are secured.
The center’s workload makes the staffing dispute more than an internal employment matter. It treated about 9,000 pediatric patients during the first half of 2025 and performs a regional emergency-care role. Ajou University Hospital has warned that continuing emergency-room operations would be difficult if the doctors leave at the same time. The evidence does not specify which services would be reduced first, whether schedules have already changed or how quickly substitute personnel could be found.
Tensions increased after the police investigation was examined at a National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee audit on October 27. The head of the police investigative unit said he sincerely regretted the pain experienced by medical staff and the inconvenience to patients, but he did not give the explicit apology sought by lawmakers. He also maintained that execution of the warrant was lawful. Pediatric emergency physicians and other medical groups subsequently renewed demands for an official police apology.
Police and medical groups remain divided
The available accounts establish that the search arose from a complaint over a patient’s death, but they do not disclose the evidence police have gathered or determine whether the treating clinicians committed negligence. They also do not show that the search itself legally exceeded the warrant. The controversy instead centers on whether the investigative approach was proportionate and how it affected clinicians who must make urgent decisions for critically ill children.
For families in southern Gyeonggi Province, the operational status of the center now depends on whether the seven doctors formalize their resignations and whether the hospital can retain or replace them. Police have not offered the direct apology demanded by medical organizations, while the hospital has not announced a confirmed shutdown or a replacement staffing plan in the supplied evidence. The center therefore remains caught between an unresolved criminal investigation and a potential loss of most of its specialist workforce.