South Korea yesterday said that it had started procedures to suspend the medical licenses of 4,900 junior doctors who have resigned and stopped working to protest government medical training reforms, causing healthcare chaos.
The walkout, which started on Feb. 20, is over government plans to sharply increase the number of doctors, which it says is essential to combat shortages and serve South Korea’s rapidly aging population. Medics argue the increase would erode service quality.
Nearly 12,000 junior doctors — 93 percent of the trainee workforce — were not in their hospitals at the last count, despite government back-to-work orders and threats of legal action, forcing Seoul to mobilize military medics and millions of dollars in state reserves to ease the situation.
Photo: Reuters
The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday said that it had sent administrative notifications — the first step toward suspending medical licenses — to thousands of trainee doctors after they defied specific orders telling them to return to their hospitals.
“As of March 8 [notifications] have been sent to more than 4,900 trainee doctors,” Health and Medical Policy Division Director Chun Byung-wang told reporters.
The government has previously warned striking doctors that they face a three-month suspension of their licenses, a punishment it says would delay by at least a year their ability to qualify as specialists.
Chun urged the striking medics to return to their patients.
“The government will take into account the circumstance and protect trainee doctors if they return to work before the administrative measure is complete,” he said, adding that doctors who return to work now could avoid the punishment.
“The government will not give up dialogue. The door for dialogue is always open... The government will respect and listen to opinions of the medical community as a companion for the medical reforms,” he said.
The government last week announced new measures to improve pay and conditions for trainee medics, plus a review of the continuous 36-hour work period, which is a major gripe of junior doctors.
The strikes have led to surgery cancelations, long wait times and delayed treatments at major hospitals.
Seoul has denied that there is a full-blown healthcare crisis, but Chun said that military doctors would start working in civilian hospitals from tomorrow.
The government is pushing to admit 2,000 more students to medical schools annually from next year to address what it calls one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed nations.
Doctors say they fear the reform would erode the quality of service and medical education, but proponents accuse medics of trying to safeguard their salaries and social status.
Under South Korean law, doctors are restricted from striking and the ministry has asked police to investigate people connected to the work stoppage.
The plan enjoys broad public support, but a new poll by local media found that 34 percent of people believe the warring sides should start negotiating properly.
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