Medical school professors to resign en masse nationwide

Social Affairs

Published: 17 Mar. 2024, 17:23 Updated: 17 Mar. 2024, 17:25

Medical school professors to resign en masse nationwide

A doctor enters a professors' lab at a hospital in Seoul on Sunday. Professors at medical schools decided to submit resgination letters starting March 25 in solidarity with junior doctors who have been on a monthlong strike to protest the government's decision to increase the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 starting next year. [YONHAP]

Professors at 16 medical schools have decided to unanimously submit their resignation letters starting March 25, according to a medical professors' group.

The group additionally called on the government to “back down from the plan to hike the enrollment quota by 2,000.”

The announcement came on Saturday after professors from 20 medical schools — accounting for half of the total number of schools nationwide — held a meeting the day before.

“The decision to submit resignation letters despite public criticism shows our determination to end the current crisis,” said Bang Jae-seung, the head of the emergency committee of the medical professors' group, during a press conference on Saturday.

“We decided to resign to prevent a medical crisis, believing that negotiations will be reached after the government first backs down from its plan to increase the enrollment quota by 2,000.”

According to Bang, professors at 16 schools, including Seoul National University and the University of Ulsan, “overwhelmingly” agreed to resign en masse, while those at four other schools, including Yonsei University and Pusan National University, are conducting internal surveys on the matter.

Bang added, however, that professors will continue to carry out their duties until their resignations have been processed, considering that over 90 percent of the 13,000 junior doctors nationwide have walked off the job as of Thursday according to Health Ministry data. By law, doctors’ resignations are automatically processed one month after submission.

March 25 is also the due date for junior doctors who have received notices to submit their opinions on medical license suspensions for defying return-to-work orders. Those who do not submit their responses by the deadline could have their licenses suspended.

Medical professors in Korea play a central role in the training of junior doctors and the oversight of fellows at teaching hospitals.

Not only are professors practicing physicians, they are also often the foremost specialists in their fields.

On Sunday, Helath Minister Cho Kyoo-hong expressed "serious" concern that the medical professors' latest decision may potentially pose "a great threat to the lives and health of patients."

"We hope the professors will gather wisdom with the government so that interns and residents will come back to the medical site," Cho said during a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting.

Surveys of medical faculties across the country in the last week indicate that professors largely favor resigning if the government does not change course.

In a Gallup Korea survey released on Friday, 47 percent of respondents said the government should stick to its original plan to increase medical recruitment, while 41 percent said it should compromise.

But the government is showing little sign of backing down on a policy that it has called long overdue and necessary.

Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang warned striking trainees on Friday that they are legally barred from taking up other employment by the government’s return-to-work order and reiterated the ministry’s earlier directive to hospitals to not process resignations submitted by junior doctors.

The massive nationwide walkout by junior doctors came in protest against the government’s decision to expand the current medical school admissions quota of 3,058 by 2,000 spots beginning next year.

The government says more doctors are needed in rural areas and essential medical fields, such as high-risk surgeries, pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency medicine. Doctors claim that such shortages are due to a disproportionate number of trainees entering lucrative fields, such as cosmetic surgery and dermatology, and argue that the government should focus first on improving compensation for low-paying practices.

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