Gov’t orders trainee doctors back to hospitals

Feb 20, 2024, 08:50 am

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Medical staff are seen at a university hospital in Seoul on February 19, 2024. Trainee doctors of five major general hospitals in Seoul resigned en masse to protest the government’s medical training reforms./ Photographed by Lee Byung-hwa

AsiaToday reporter Lee Joon-young

Thousands of trainee doctors have begun resigning en masse in protest against the government’s plan to boost the number of medical school admissions quota, resulting in medical chaos. In response, the government ordered all trainee doctors to keep providing medical treatment to prevent a medical chaos, while announcing a strict investigation policy saying it would consider arresting the leaders.

According to the medical community on Monday, a collective resignation of around 13,000 trainee doctors at 221 training hospitals is spreading across the country.

Trainee doctors in pediatrics and a number of other departments at Severance Hospital submitted their letters of resignation on Monday to walk off the job right away. Trainee doctors from the so-called “Big Five” hospitals in Seoul had announced they would submit resignation letters and stop working starting Tuesday.

Collective resignations of trainee doctors are spreading across the country. Some trainee doctors from the Catholic University of Korea Daejeon St. Mary’s Hospital submitted their resignation letters and have not come to work since Monday morning. The head of the hospital’s trainee doctors council collected and submitted resignation letters to the hospital. Some trainee doctors of Jeju National University Hospital and Cheju Halla General Hospital either have submitted their resignation letters or are planning to submit. Most of trainee doctors from Jeonbuk National University Hospital are also expected to submit their resignation letters.

Trainee doctors at the advanced general hospitals account for nearly 30 percent of the total doctors there, and their absence is disrupting the medical sector. Severance Hospital and Asan Medical Center in Seoul are adjusting the schedules of patients’ surgeries.

The government issued the order for trainee doctors at all 221 training hospitals nationwide to continue work to prevent medical chaos. It ordered all trainee doctors not to leave the hospital. Violators will be subject to legal punishment.

The health ministry plans to issue an order for trainee doctors back to hospitals and suspend their medical license if they refuse to comply. In fact, the ministry said it has taken steps to suspend medical licenses of two of the leaders of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) which represents doctors and leads their collective action. If the two turn out to be urging doctors to take collective action, their licenses will be cancelled.

“We earnestly ask the doctors to withdraw their decision to resign en masse and walk off their jobs,” said Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo at a briefing at the Sejong Government Complex.

Police have also decided to take stern action against the collective action of doctors. They warned they could arrest “key instigators” of the work stoppages.

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