University hospitals suspend appointments Tuesday as doctors walk out

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo speaks at a meeting at the Health Ministry in Sejong on Tuesday. [HEALTH MINISTRY]

Seoul National University Hospital and Severance Hospital suspended outpatient appointments and surgeries on Tuesday after their medical professors walked off in support of junior doctors on strike against the government’s plan to increase medical recruitment.

Professors at medical schools across the country earlier announced they would take one day off per week in a move they say is intended to lighten their workload in the absence of trainee doctors, but which observers believe is designed to pressure the government to change course.

Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said at a press briefing on Monday that the Health Ministry expects no serious disruptions to occur due to the one-day walkout by medical professors, who also supervise junior doctors and fellows and often serve as the foremost specialists at their hospitals.

But with professors at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital and Asan Medical Center expected to take every Friday off, concerns are mounting that continuing weekly suspensions in noncritical services could shake public confidence in the country’s health care system.

Professors working at Samsung Medical Center and its regional branches have also been advised by the emergency committee of Sungkyunkwan University’s School of Medicine to “take one day off per week to relieve pressure from overwork and maintain a 52-hour workweek.”

Park said the government plans to deploy more military doctors and public medical personnel as senior doctors at all of the nation's five major hospitals — Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, Severance Hospital, Seoul National University Hospital and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital — to “minimize disruptions in medical services,” but acknowledged “it would be challenging for them to fully replace professors.”

Over 13,000 junior doctors have remained off the job since Feb. 20 to protest the government's plan to hike the current medical school admissions quota by 2,000 spots.

The annual medical recruitment quota has been capped at 3,058 since 2006.

Although the government accepted a request from the presidents of six national universities to grant 32 medical schools flexibility in deciding how many spots they want to add next year, the move appears to have failed to mollify doctors’ groups, which are demanding that the government scrap the planned increase entirely.

Although a special presidential commission on medical reform launched on Thursday, no representatives from any of the country’s main doctors’ groups attended the inaugural meeting.

Lim Hyun-taek, the president-elect of the Korean Medical Association — the country’s largest doctors’ group — has previously said that the medical community will not engage in talks until the government scraps its recruitment expansion plan entirely.

During Monday’s press briefing, Park reiterated the government’s openness to hold “direct talks with the medical community,” adding that the government plans to improve compensation for cerebrovascular treatments and organ transplants to attract more doctors to essential medical fields.

While the government argues it needs to increase annual medical recruitment now to prevent a shortage of 10,000 doctors in 2035, doctors argue that the root cause of the problem lies with poor compensation and a lack of legal protections for doctors in essential sectors.

After liberal Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung expressed support for medical reform at his first official meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) urged the medical community to engage in talks with the government and end the strike.

Speaking at the National Assembly on Tuesday, PPP interim leader Yun Jae-ok said doctors’ associations “should not underestimate the significance” of the president’s meeting with Lee.

“Medical reform is a common challenge for both major parties now that Lee has expressed agreement with the government on the inevitability of expanding the medical school admissions quota,” Yun said.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]