Doctors keep up protests

Feb 26, 2024, 09:06 am

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Participants shout slogans at the march event held in front of the presidential office in Seoul on Sunday by the emergency committee of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) to call on the government to withdraw its plan to increase the medical school admissions quota./ Source: Yonhap News

AsiaToday reporters Lee Joon-young & Park Ji-eun

The woes of patients and their families who are suffering from postponed or rescheduled surgeries and other medical procedures are increasing due to the strong confrontation between the government and doctors over the increase of the medical school admissions quota. While the presidential office revealed that it will maintain its plan to admit 2,000 more students to medical schools next year, representatives of doctors across the country expressed their stance to resist.

The emergency committee of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), a main lobby group for doctors, held an emergency meeting of its representatives on Sunday and expressed its position to resist the government’s push to increase the number of medical school admissions quota by 2,000. After the meeting, they marched through the streets to the presidential office in Yongsan, calling on the government to withdraw its plan to increase the quota of medical students.

Thousands of trainee doctors working at large hospitals remained off their jobs for the seventh day to protest the government’s plan. As of Thursday, 7,863, or 69.4 percent, of the trainee doctors from 94 major hospitals left their workplaces. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has so far issued back-to-work orders to 7,038 trainee doctors, with 5,976 of them receiving confirmations of non-compliance from their hospitals.

As full-time doctors and professors, who are filling the empty seats of trainee doctors, are moving to join the collective action next month, raising concerns over a possible health service paralysis beyond the medical crisis.

However, the government is taking a tough stance. Sung Tae-yoon, presidential chief of staff for policy, said that the government would maintain the existing plan, saying, “We need to increase the number of medical students by 2,000.” Presidential spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung pointed out that there was no cases in any country where doctors have taken extreme actions, such as collective resignations holding people’s lives health hostage.

The government stressed prompt judicial action as well. The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said that it will send prosecutors to the health ministry to promptly take judicial action against collective action. Prosecutors’ offices nationwide will also seek to expedite judicial action by establishing a cooperative system with the police.

Meanwhile, as nearly 6,000 trainee doctors left the hospital without following government orders, major hospitals in Seoul have reduced their surgery plans by 30 to 50 percent and postponed surgery for severe patients.

#doctors #collective action #government #medical school admission