Long waits at hospitals?

I have only received excellent care at Korean hospitals.  Typically, if I am sick and need to visit emerg, I wait less than twenty minutes.  Actually, I have never waited longer than 20 minutes here.

That conflicts with a Korea Herald report:

The time a patient spends in an emergency room could be as long as 14 hours in Busan. On the other hand, in North Gyeongsang Province, the average time spent in an emergency room was about two hours.

Indeed, the review found great regional disparities in the availability and quality of emergency care. Busan and Gwangju did not have any regional emergency medical center that met the legal requirements while all of the regional emergency medical centers in Gangwon and South Chungcheong provinces fulfilled the requirements.

I hae had friends, however, who have horror stories based on visits to doctors here.  One woman, asking about an injured ankle was told, "no solution, always disabled." - The problem has, indeed, been solved.

Another friend with leg problems is the El Camino Packer.  His own surfboard treacherously have him the Nancy Kerrigan treatment and now his knee is in bad shape.  I hope he recovers quickly.