Only qualified foreign doctors will practice in Korea, assures prime minister

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speaks during a Friday meeting of the Central Disaster Management Headquarters at the Central Government Complex in Jongno District, Seoul, to address the ongoing junior doctors' strike. [YONHAP]

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Friday that the government will take steps to ensure that only qualified foreign doctors can practice in Korea in response to outrage from the medical community over the Health Ministry’s proposal to potentially bring in medical practitioners from overseas.

The prime minister’s remarks came the same day that medical professors at four of the country’s foremost teaching hospitals did not come to work, citing fatigue from overwork due to the prolonged strike by some 12,000 junior doctors who walked off their jobs on Feb. 20 to protest the government’s plan to increase annual medical recruitment by 2,000 spots.

Speaking at a meeting of government officials on Friday, Han said that “unverified” doctors would not be allowed to treat Korean patients “under any circumstances” and that the government “will prepare thorough safety measures” to safeguard public health.

The previous day, the Health Ministry said it would ask the National Assembly to pass a bill allowing individuals holding foreign medical licenses to practice medicine in the country while the state of the four-tier public healthcare alert system is at the highest level, “serious.”

The announcement, which medical associations denounced as “insane” and tantamount to “placing Korean patients on a test bed as experimental subjects,” highlighted the limitations of the government’s ongoing efforts to fill staffing shortages at major hospitals with doctors who usually serve in the military and public health centers.

Those shortages have been exacerbated since medical professors, who are usually the foremost specialists in their fields, began taking days off mid-week.

Some 50 hospitals were affected by the day-long walkout by medical professors on Friday, including Seoul National University Hospital, Asan Medical Center, Severance Hospital and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, which along with Samsung Medical Center constitute the so-called Big 5 tertiary hospitals in the country.

Medical professors have previously taken off on April 30 and May 3 with no major disruptions reported in health services.

At a press conference to mark two years since he took office, President Yoon Suk Yeol said that medical reform “is a task that can no longer be delayed,” suggesting the government does intend to change course on its planned expansion of the annual medical school admissions quota.

During a press briefing on Friday, Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said the Health Ministry’s bill “is a preemptive and supplementary measure to prepare for potential future emergencies” and that the government “does not have immediate plans to deploy foreign doctors as the current emergency medical system continues to operate effectively despite ongoing challenges.”

Park added that even if foreign doctors are deployed, they will only be authorized to administer treatments under the supervision of local doctors.

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