Hospitals allowed to process resignations as gov't adopts lighter touch

Social Affairs

Published: 04 Jun. 2024, 18:46

Hospitals allowed to process resignations as gov't adopts lighter touch

Several medical professionals walk toward a building of a general hospital in Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The government said Tuesday that it would allow hospitals to let junior doctors leave by “revoking” administrative labor orders imposed on them and greenlighting the due processing of their resignations.

Speaking to the press, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said the government would lift three orders issued in February on Tuesday: a back-to-work order, a stay-on-duty order and an order that barred hospital chiefs from reviewing the resignations.

The minister’s remarks rendered effective the resignations of junior doctors, which had been pending since they were submitted in February.

Cho said that heads of training hospitals can review and process resignations starting Tuesday after the ministry notifies them that the orders have been lifted. There is “no deadline” for processing the resignations.

Cho asked hospitals to “check junior doctors’ individual stances on their employment through private counseling” when handling their resignations and “persuade” them to remain at their hospitals.

The minister also addressed other post-walking measures aimed at junior doctors who have left their hospitals.

The government will “discontinue all undertakings to penalize junior doctors who return,” he said.

The punishment for junior doctors who refuse to return will be specified “according to later circumstances, including public opinion and the medical service situation.”

Cho promised different treatment for junior doctors who returned and those who did not.

He added that the government could offer favorable terms to the returnees, including “adjustment of training periods." Such a measure could help junior doctors “earn their medical specialty license as scheduled" without career delays.

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong speaks in a briefing on Tuesday at the government complex in central Seoul. [YONHAP]

The order revocation on Tuesday marks a pivotal shift in the government’s hitherto stringent attitude toward the junior doctors’ walkout, with the authorities adopting a more lenient position.

Since February, the authorities have sent strong messages to junior doctors and imposed labor orders to keep them at hospitals.

Cho explained that the shift was “inevitable” because of “consistent voices from health care professionals asking for permission to process the resignations.”

Upon processing resignations, general hospitals can recruit new doctors by opening up slots formerly occupied by junior doctors.

At the same time, junior doctors who were approved to leave their hospitals can seek new jobs at other medical institutions or private clinics with their general doctors’ licenses.

Hospitals and medical professors speculate that junior doctors in their third or final year of training have higher chances of returning, considering they have less than a year remaining training before they can earn medical specialty licenses.

A medical professor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the JoongAng Ilbo that "over half of the junior doctors walked out could return.”

However, younger junior doctors appear determined to resign from their hospitals.

A representative of junior doctors working in a general hospital in the greater Seoul area told the JoongAng Ilbo that the government "suddenly appears to be deferring responsibility for processing resignations to the hospitals.”

Park Dan, head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, told association members on Monday that he would “not return to his training hospital even after his resignation is approved.” He asked the members to remain determined to defy the government’s expectations.

On Tuesday, Park also wrote on Facebook that hospitals "should prepare to hand out severance pay to junior doctors.”

The Health Ministry on Monday confirmed that just 8.4 percent of junior doctors, or 879 out of 10,509, were on duty as of last Thursday.

BY CHAE HYE-SEON, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]