Government calls on retired doctors to fill medical void

Social Affairs

Published: 22 Mar. 2024, 19:03

Government calls on retired doctors to fill medical void

A doctor wearing a white gown helps his patients ride an elevator at a general hospital in Seoul on Friday morning. [YONHAP]

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Friday that the government will source additional medical personnel by "hiring retired senior doctors and deploying military doctors."

The plan comes as the government hopes to fill the medical void by calling upon some 5,000 inactive senior doctors and extending the years of service of doctors about to retire.

A total of 4,166 doctors aged between 50 and 79 were not working as of December last year, according to the Health Ministry. In addition, some 1,269 medical professors have retired from their posts over the last five years.

"[The country] will run a support center managing a senior doctors’ talent pool which will be set up at the National Medical Center in central Seoul," Han said during a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on the same day. "It will connect them with hospitals and begin operation next month."

Han noted that 247 military medical professionals — army physicians and public health doctors — will be dispatched to general hospitals starting Monday, when medical professors are scheduled to file their resignations en masse.

The upcoming deployment on Monday will be the second batch of military personnel mobilization, in addition to 166 professionals who have been sent to the hospitals since March 11.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo, left, speaks during a briefing for a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting at the governmental complex in central Seoul on Friday. [YONHAP]

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo urged junior doctors to “return as soon as possible to fulfill the sacred calling as doctors” during a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters briefing on Friday.

“[The ministry] will pardon those who demonstrate willingness to return before the grace period ends,” Park said, adding that the authorities’ forgiving gesture will end once penalties begin next week.

Park also slammed down junior doctors’ attempts to earn medical licenses abroad, saying such endeavors were “impossible.”

He explained that "graduates of Korean medical schools with no U.S. citizenship or green card need to obtain a J-1 visa sponsored by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. The commission requires candidates to submit references issued by home countries’ authorities."

"For Korean medical students, these references would be endorsements from the Health Ministry. However, ministerial rule stipulates that those subject to administrative penalties [such as license suspension] cannot earn the authority’s reference."

During the briefing, the vice minister proposed “unconditional dialogue” with medical professors, specifically inviting a nationwide coalition of emergency professorial committees at medical schools and the Medical Professors Association of Korea to the bargaining table.

“The government can join the talks with medical professors at any time and anywhere,” Park said. “Draining contestation with no progress must come to an end, and the ministry anticipates that professors will participate in a discussion [to end the standoff].”

The Health Ministry said that 11,935 trainee doctors have staged walkouts as of Tuesday, accounting for 92.7 percent of trainee doctors at 100 major hospitals nationwide. Of the total number, the Health Ministry sent prior notice of license suspension to 7,088 junior doctors by Wednesday.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]