Health Ministry threatens 'stern response' to upcoming KMA-led doctors' strike

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Health Ministry threatens 'stern response' to upcoming KMA-led doctors' strike

Published: 13 Jun. 2024, 18:18 Updated: 13 Jun. 2024, 19:19

MICHAEL LEE
lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr

The Korea Severe Disease Association and other patients’ groups hold up placards calling on doctors to cancel a nationwide strike planned for June 18 during a protest in front of the National Assembly on Thursday. [YONHAP]

The Health Ministry warned on Thursday that medical professors and doctors who participate in the one-day walkout next week could face a “stern response” from authorities if the strike results in cancellations and delays in patient care.

During a press briefing held at the Sejong government complex, Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang noted that “medical staff and hospitals are not permitted to deny requests for medical treatment and relevant services without a reasonable explanation” under medical law and that “unilaterally canceling patients’ appointments may constitute an illegal refusal to provide care.”

“The government will mount a stern response to any illegal acts while maintaining the emergency system to safeguard the lives and health of the people,” he added.

The deputy health minister made the comments after the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the country’s largest doctors’ group, said community doctors and medical professors will conduct a one-day general strike on June 18 to force the government to withdraw its plan to expand annual medical recruitment. The issue triggered an ongoing walkout by some 12,000 junior doctors from hospitals across the country in February.

The KMA said Thursday that the group could “reconsider” the June 18 strike if the government “shows a change in its stance,” while warning the nationwide walkout would proceed if there is no change in the government’s position.

Senior doctors at four hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University (SNU) are due to go on strike indefinitely beginning June 17 to support the junior doctors on strike, while medical professors at three hospitals associated with Yonsei University plan to cease providing most services beginning June 27.

SNU’s main hospital in Jongno District, central Seoul, and Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, are considered two of the country’s five foremost teaching hospitals along with Asan Medical Center, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital and Samsung Medical Center.

Medical professors on SNU’s emergency response committee said they are scheduled to meet with members of the National Assembly on Sunday after receiving a proposal for talks on Wednesday, but noted that the details of the meeting agenda had yet to be decided.

Yi Han-kyung, the chief of the Interior Ministry’s disaster management office, said Thursday the government “will try until the very end to persuade doctors not to go through with their planned collective action” but also warned that “any illegal acts will be met with a stern response.”

Yi also called on doctors and medical groups to “prioritize the importance of human lives” in their decision-making process.

The KMA’s decision to stage a one-day walkout, as well as the indefinite strike announced by doctors at hospitals affiliated with SNU and Yonsei University, prompted the Korea Severe Disease Association and other patients’ groups to demand that the National Assembly pass a law to ban future strikes by doctors.

In a joint statement read aloud in front of the legislature on Thursday, the groups expressed deeo concern over the KMA’s planned strike and the decision by professors at Seoul National University hospitals to suspend services indefinitely.

Noting that patients have experienced “grave suffering due to the prolonged gap in medical services over the past several months,” the groups expressed deep concern that they now “face another strike” that threatens to push them “into the abyss.”

Medical associations have refused to call off the ongoing strike even after the Seoul High Court last month denied doctors’ and medical students’ request for an injunction to halt the expansion of the annual medical recruitment quota, which is set to rise by 1,500 spots under the admissions plans submitted to the Education Ministry by medical schools nationwide.

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