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Yoon pledges 'flexible measures' to deal with striking doctors as PPP chief urges leniency

Published: 24 Mar. 2024, 18:42

MICHAEL LEE
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Han Dong-hoon, the leader of the conservative People Power Party, walks down a corridor inside Severance Hospital in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, on his way to a meeting with the leadership of the national medical professors' council on Sunday afternoon. The council requested the party's help in mediating potential talks with the government, according to Han. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Sunday his administration will work with the conservative People Power Party (PPP) to devise “flexible measures” to deal with the ongoing doctors’ strike after the PPP leader met with representatives of medical school professors in the afternoon.

According to the presidential office, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon requested that the government be lenient in taking action against trainee doctors who have walked out of hospitals, and that Yoon subsequently directed Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to search for ways to engage in “constructive negotiations” with the medical community.

The PPP leader, who met representatives of the national medical school professors’ council on Sunday afternoon, told reporters that the council reached out to the party to “mediate” between doctors and the government to prevent “a situation where the people could be harmed.”

The PPP leader declined to provide more details about his talks with the council but said he had offered to help professors in a potential dialogue with the government.

The president's directive marked a shift from his administration’s hardline stance against junior doctors who have defied the Health Ministry’s back-to-work order.

Sung Tae-yoon, the presidential director of national policy, said during a local news radio broadcast earlier the same day that the government “would rather not undertake administrative and legal steps” to penalize junior doctors but that it has “no choice” but to begin suspending the licenses of junior doctors who remain on strike this week.

Under Korean medical law, doctors who refuse the ministry’s back-to-work order can face up to three years in prison or a fine of 30 million won ($22,480), as well as license suspensions of up to one year. Doctors who are handed prison sentences automatically lose their licenses.

Sung called on trainee doctors who have walked out on their jobs to “return [to hospitals] before their license suspensions are finalized.”

The Health Ministry’s official position is that it will begin suspending licenses this week.

Junior doctors who received warnings earlier this month could see their licenses suspended as early as Tuesday if they fail to submit their responses to the notices by Monday.

Over 90 percent of Korea’s 13,000 junior doctors have remained on strike for over a month to protest the government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions quota by 2,000 spots from the current limit of 3,058, which has been frozen since its last reduction in 2006.

The government has argued that more doctors are needed in rural areas and essential medical fields, such as high-risk surgeries, pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency medicine, to prevent a shortfall of 15,000 doctors by 2035.

While doctors claim shortages are due to too many trainees choosing lucrative fields such as cosmetic surgery and dermatology over low-paying, high-risk jobs in essential sectors, critics argue that doctors also oppose increased recruitment for fear of higher competition and lower pay.

The ongoing walkout has already resulted in lengthy delays in scheduling procedures at larger hospitals, which rely heavily on interns and residents to assist senior doctors during surgeries and inpatient treatment.

Medical school professors across the country are set on Monday to begin submitting resignations en masse and limit their services to 52 hours a week, according to the national medical school professors’ council.

The council said that it will also reduce outpatient care to a “minimum” to focus on critically ill patients and emergency cases and that professors will “do their best to treat patients until [their] resignations are accepted.”

By law, doctors’ resignations are automatically processed one month after submission.

A mass resignation of professors could seriously damage the government’s efforts to end the doctors’ strike, as it could lead to a dangerous void of expertise in patient care and medical education.

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

On Sunday, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong urged medical school professors “to actively take part in negotiating detailed medical reform measures” instead of resigning.

However, professors are calling on the government to withdraw its medical recruitment expansion plan and commit to dialogue with the striking doctors rather than pursuing legal action against them.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]