Two major Seoul hospitals halt services as professors picket for policy change

Social Affairs

Published: 03 May. 2024, 10:54

Two major Seoul hospitals halt services as professors picket for policy change

Medical professors from Asan Medical Center and the University of Ulsan picket in front of the hospital in southern Seoul on Friday, calling on the government to nullify the medical recruitment expansion plan. [NEWS1]

Two of the capital’s largest hospitals will shut down their services on Friday.

Medical professors from Asan Medical Center and Seoul St. Mary Hospital will take one day of leave on Friday, leaving treatments for outpatients and surgeries unattended for the day.

The professors from Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul are set to picket in front of the hospital, demanding the government scrap its plan to expand admissions quotas in medical schools.

The professors of Asan Medical Center will hold a private seminar with the professors from the University of Ulsan and those who work in its sister hospital in Gangwon, Gangneung Asan Hospital. The faculties will discuss the path that medical schools should pursue.

“The seminar aims to share difficulties in health care front lines due to wrongful medical recruitment expansion policies and to devise solutions to address such problems,” said Choi Chang-min, a pulmonologist at Asan Medical Center and head of the professorial committee at the College of Medicine at the University of Ulsan.

Choi added that he hopes medical services will be “normalized” after the standoff between the government and doctors is resolved.

In Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, treatment for outpatients and non-urgent operations will be unavailable on Fridays starting in May.

The weekly leave is to “prevent malpractices and accidents” that might happen due to overly-fatigued medical staff, the hospital’s professorial emergency committee said.

Both Asan Medical Center and Seoul St. Mary Hospital said the weekly shutdowns are not “compulsory” but rather “recommendatory,” allowing doctors to take a daylong break at their discretions.

Outside the greater Seoul area, Chungbuk National University Hospital in North Chungcheong, Konyang University Hospital in Daejeon and Wonkwang University Hospital in North Jeolla will close their services for outpatients and operations.

The University of Ulsan’s medical professors — whose weekly day off falls on Friday — will treat hospitalized, critically ill and emergency patients.

Incheon St. Mary’s Hospital will shut down its medical services for outpatients on Saturday.

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