Gov't begins procedures to suspend striking trainee doctors

Social Affairs

Published: 04 Mar. 2024, 19:06

Gov't begins procedures to suspend striking trainee doctors

An emergency patient is transferred to an emergency room at Chonnam University Hospital in Gwangju on Monday morning. [NEWS1]

The government doubled down on Monday by beginning administrative procedures to suspend the licenses of some 7,000 junior trainee doctors on strike.

The Health Ministry dispatched its officials to 50 hospitals nationwide on Monday to check on the work status of junior doctors. Any trainee doctors whose absence is confirmed shall receive license suspension notifications from Tuesday.

The “irreversible” suspension will be implemented step by step, considering administrative resources and hospital staffing situations.

“Doctors facing the license suspension cannot fulfill their training requirements to earn a license for board-certified subspecialties,” Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said during a briefing on Monday.

A license for board-certified subspecialties supersedes the licenses held by junior doctors.

The government warned that the inevitable minimum three-month license suspension could delay their careers to become professional doctors by a year if they do not return to work and jeopardize their employment records.

“Strictly speaking only those who returned by Feb. 29 are eligible for immunity. However, as the on-site probe begins Monday, any striking doctors returning before the inspection could face more lenient punishment,” Park said.

“Through the inspection, the ministry will execute legal measures sternly regarding the violation of medical law according to the rule of law and principle, focusing on key figures who have caused chaos in the medical field by instigating and leading the collective actions,” Park added.

“No matter what has caused such a collective action, doctors leaving patients behind cannot be tolerated,” Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said during a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on Monday.

The authorities said they will go easy on doctors who return to work.

According to the Health Ministry, some 565 doctors have resumed their work — out of 8,945 junior trainee doctors who have staged walkouts.

“Despite the government’s multiple calls urging them to return by Feb. 29, a handful of doctors have not yet returned. The authorities call for the doctors’ swift return to the medical front line,” Cho said.

No sizable return has been observed nationwide.

In Seoul, of some 5,646 junior trainee doctors, 4,549 had filed their resignations as of Thursday at 6 p.m., according to the city government.

Of 325 junior trainee doctors subject to “back-to-work” orders in Daejeon, only one returned to Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital.

Gyeongsang National University Hospital, where 124 junior trainee doctors filed their resignations, saw just one return as of Monday.

The minister also expressed regret over the mass strike that left patients’ health and treatment in limbo.

Keimyung University Daegu Dongsan Hospital in Daegu said it can no longer accommodate emergency patients suffering from respiratory diseases due to understaffing.

The emergency room at Asan Medical Center in Seoul announced that it cannot accept new patients to its medical intensive care unit. Severance Hospital also declared that it would take emergency patients selectively.

A situation room managing the operations of state-run Emergency Operations Centers [YONHAP]

To manage such a vacuum in health care, the government made four Emergency Operations Centers fully operational as of Monday.

The centers will oversee the transportation and administration of emergency patients at hospitals, aiming to help them receive timely treatment. They are located in Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu and Gwangju.

Cho also said various industrial and social groups and entities — including labor unions, religious groups, organizations for patients and disabled people — have urged the doctors to halt their collective actions immediately.

Monday is a day when fellow doctors renew their employment contracts with hospitals.

“The government is asking the fellow doctors to stay on their duties" by signing their contracts as initially planned, Cho said.

However, the situation is unraveling in the opposite way.

Of 52 slots, 21 nominated fellows gave up their appointments at the final stage at Chonnam National University Hospital in Gwangju.

Nearby Chosun University Hospital experienced a similar situation where 13 doctors dropped out during the appointment stage to become fellow doctors.

Protesters picket in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Sunday to oppose the governmental plan to increase the country's medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 slots. The demonstration was led by the Korean Medical Association. [YONHAP]

Amid the intensifying tension between medical professionals and the government, President Yoon Suk Yeol said that “freedom comes with responsibility and ethics” during a meeting with presidential secretaries on Sunday.

Some 12,000 doctors participated in a rally led by the Korean Medical Association (KMA) in western Seoul on the same day to protest against the governmental plan to hike medical colleges’ enrollment quota.

The president seemed to be denouncing doctors who “abandoned public duties to save people’s lives and insisted on freedom to choose an occupation,” according to an official who joined the meeting.

“There is no retreat in medical reforms, and the government will act sternly against doctors’ illegal mass actions,” a high-ranking presidential official said Monday.

The health minister also addressed the demonstration on Sunday.

“The government is deeply concerned that the doctors walked off from patients and participated in collective actions. There is an allegation that employees from pharmaceutical companies were mobilized, too. If it turns out to be true, such actions amount to coercion in return for purchasing medicine,” Cho said.

The protest organizer fired back, arguing that if the government can restrict one’s occupational freedom for the sake of the public good, "democracy in Korea has become extinct.”

The minister also called universities with medical colleges to submit their 2025 academic year enrollment quotas by Monday.

“The government anticipates receiving colleges’ admission plans that can nurture future medical professionals and build sustainable medical infrastructure,” Cho said.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG, HAN JEE-HYE [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]