Trainee doctor resignations top 70 percent

Social Affairs

Published: 21 Feb. 2024, 18:39 Updated: 21 Feb. 2024, 19:11

Trainee doctor resignations top 70 percent

A patient in a wheelchair and a guardian wait in front of an emergency medical center in Seoul on Wednsday morning. Around 71 percent of interns and residents at 100 major hospitals nationwide submitted their resignation letters as of 10 p.m. Tuesday to protest the government's medical school enrollment quota hike. [YONHAP]

Some 70 percent of trainee doctors have resigned since last week to protest the government's plan to hike medical school enrollment quotas.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday that it had ordered 6,112 of the 8,816 trainee doctors who have left their posts at 100 major hospitals nationwide to return to work as of 10 p.m. Tuesday.

“The government will focus on exerting all efforts to provide medical services for serious and urgent patients at general hospitals experiencing extreme absences of trainee doctors,” Second Health Vice Minister Park Min-soo said during a press briefing held Wednesday.

The government will maintain medical services for essential fields for severe and emergency cases and expand service hours at public hospitals and medical centers.

Disaster and emergency medical operation centers began operating for longer hours through 8 p.m. on weekdays starting Tuesday. The government also plans to draw up responsive measures to maintain the emergency medical system, including raising service prices.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo talks to an inpatient at National Police Hospital in Songpa District, western Seoul, on Wednesday as trainee doctors continue resigning to protest the government's decision to increase the medical school enrollment quota. [YONHAP]

Park also told interns and residents that everything could be resumed if they returned to their work, as no penalties have been imposed yet.

A total of 92 cases impacted by the mass resignation from Monday were reported to the support center set up to respond to collective actions by doctors as of 6 p.m. Tuesday. The cases included 44 surgeries and eight medical consultation cancellations.

“My brother, who suffers from multiple myeloma, was barely accepted to an emergency room,” a 59-year-old man told the JoongAng Ilbo, this paper’s affiliate, at Sinchon Severance Hospital in western Seoul at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer. According to the 59-year-old, it took around 10 hours to finally get into the emergency room as they had to visit two other hospitals.

However, the emergency room was relatively vacant, with zero patients waiting around 11 p.m.

“Fewer patients are being transferred as fewer surgeries are taking place due to a lack of doctors,” a nurse at the hospital said.

At around 10 p.m. Tuesday, the emergency room of Konkuk University Medical Center in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, announced it could not accept critical child patients due to the absence of trainee doctors in the pediatrics department.

Patients and their guardians sit and wait for their turn at a hospital in Seoul on Wednesday morning. [YONHAP]

In Seoul, around 68 percent of the trainee doctors, or 3,796 interns and residents, at 47 hospitals submitted their resignation letters as of 6 p.m. Tuesday.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Wednesday, 32 of them have been ordered to resume work across 17 hospitals in the city.

Medical school students are showing solidarity by taking a leave of absence and not showing up for classes.

According to the Ministry of Education, 8,753 students applied for leaves of absence at 27 of 40 medical schools nationwide as of 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Thirty-four applications were approved for other reasons, such as military service and health issues.

However, the ministry said it could not confirm whether the rest of the applications were submitted by medical school students participating in the mass walkout.

Medical classes at Chung-Ang University were all canceled on Wednesday. Sungkyunkwan University’s School of Medicine classes were partially canceled as students did not attend, and some professors had to fill in for hospital doctors.

On the same day, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) criticized the government for regarding resignations of trainee doctors as “collective actions.” The remarks came during the emergency committee of KMA’s first press briefing on Wednesday afternoon in Yongsan District, downtown Seoul.

“People’s rights to life are important, but the basic right of people to choose whether to become doctors as an occupation should also be respected,” said Joo Su-ho, the head of the KMA emergency committee’s public relations committee, adding that the government is “suppressing” the fundamental rights of trainee doctors.

“The government can show us hopeful sides if it wants doctors to resume providing medical services,” Joo said, adding that if the government suppresses one doctor, a thousand doctors will give up their jobs.

The KMA argued that the enrollment quota hike would only cause more doctors to work in nonessential areas.

Interns and residents in Korea have submitted resignation letters to protest the government’s decision to increase the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 starting next year. The measure was announced to address the shortage of medical services in essential fields, especially in rural areas.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]