KMA tells gov't to scrap med school quota hike, accept 'public's judgment' after election

Kim Sung-keun, head of the press at the emergency committee of the Korean Medical Association, speaks at a press briefing held in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) on Friday urged the government to promptly scrap its plan for a medical school quota hike, stressing the election results were the public's judgment against the scheme.

In a press briefing on Friday, held for the first time since Wednesday's election, the KMA asked the government to withdraw its orders and administrative punishments against the group's leadership and junior doctors if it plans to have a sincere conversation.

A Seoul court the day before dismissed requests by KMA leaders to halt their medical license suspension imposed by the Health Ministry, which accused them of instigating doctors and trainees to take collective action.

The government imposed a three-month medical license suspension on two leaders of the KMA, Kim Tae-woo, the emergency committee chief, and Park Myung-ha, president of the Seoul Medical Association. Their licenses will be suspended from April 15.

“The public has realized from the government’s changing attitudes and its attempt to have a conversation that its real purpose in pushing forward the plan was a populist strategy for the general election rather than medical reform,” said Kim Sung-keun, the head of media relations at the group.

"The government should accept the public's judgment and immediately halt its plan to increase medical school quotas and policies aimed at boosting essential medical fields, all of which are causing havoc in the medical system."

Over 90 percent of Korea’s 13,000 junior doctors have remained on strike since Feb. 20 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 walkout has caused chaos in the country’s medical system as junior doctors, who comprise 30 to 40 percent of the total number of doctors at the country’s top hospitals, assist senior doctors during surgeries and manage inpatients.

As the walkout continued, the Health Ministry on Friday said it would deploy more than 2,700 additional physician assistant (PA) nurses to hospitals to fill in the medical void.

The plan was announced during Friday's Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting, which was presided over by Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong.

The additional figure would raise the number of PA nurses providing secondary and tertiary care in general hospitals nationwide to over 11,000.

The government said it would conduct teaching sessions starting next Thursday. In Korea, PAs refer to nurses who mainly support junior doctors, taking part in performing operations and conducting tests.

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