Patients' group slams doctors as SNUH professors begin indefinite strike

Social Affairs

Published: 17 Jun. 2024, 19:13 Updated: 17 Jun. 2024, 19:29

Patients' group slams doctors as SNUH professors begin indefinite strike

A waiting area inside Seoul National University Hospital in downtown Seoul is nearly vacant on Monday, the first day when medical professors of the hospital started to strike. [YONHAP]

A nationwide patients' group is urging doctors to remain on the job as a strike by medical professors at hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University (SNU) sparks fear of delayed treatments.

"We anxiously came to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital to check whether my wife could duly receive surgery for breast cancer in July as planned," a married couple in their 30s told the JoongAng Ilbo on Monday when the strike began.

Another woman in her 70s who recently underwent cancer surgery said she saw a sudden change in her radiation treatment schedule and is worried about such changes recurring.

The Korea Alliance of Patients Organization demanded that doctors stop using patients’ fear as a tool to pressure the government.

In a written statement issued on the same day that 529 medical professors at SNU began their indefinite walkout, the organization said it is “hard to understand why medical professors on an emergency response committee of SNU have resorted to an indefinite strike.”

The organization represents patients who have leukemia, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, cancer, cardiac diseases, psoriasis, diabetes and neuroendocrine tumors.

The strike impacts non-urgent surgeries and treatments at SNU’s four affiliated hospitals.

The patients’ group said the professorial strike could “risk the safety of patients” by aggravating the medical vacuum prompted by the junior doctors’ walkout that started in February.

In response to the committee’s promise to maintain medical services for patients with critical and rare diseases, the group questioned why patients classified as non-critical must suffer treatment delays as the medical community and government fight.

The group said patients are “innocent concerning the number of seats added in medical schools’ admissions, administrative penalties levied on striking junior doctors and medical policy packages.”

The group also accused the nation’s largest doctors’ group, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), of “not considering patients’ safety and treatment.”

A notice informing patients of the clinic's closure on Tuesday is placed on a desk in a private clinic in Gyeonggi on Monday. [NEWS1]

On Sunday, the KMA demanded the government accept its requests or face a doctor strike on Tuesday.

The patients’ group criticized the KMA for striking to achieve its own interests. It also criticized the doctors supporting the KMA for failing to fulfill their social responsibility as medical professionals.

On Monday, the Health Ministry reported the KMA to the Fair Trade Commission, accusing the association of violating the Fair Trade Act. The ministry believes the KMA – which could be considered an organization representing private practitioners – had illegally mobilized doctors to strike and limited business activities.

Not all doctors wish to stage walkouts.

The Association of Physicians for Humanism, a smaller group representing doctors, said in a statement released on Monday that it “opposes any forms of behavior placing patients and the public in fear and anxiety by using treatment suspensions as tools for a struggle" against the government.

The group also wrote that they are “seriously concerned about the possible negative consequences” of the current strike, arguing it could damage trust between doctors, patients and the public.

Medical professors and junior doctors at Seoul National University Hospital and medical students studying at Seoul National University's College of Medicine participate in a protest at the school's building in Jongno District, central Seoul on Monday. [KIM JONG-HO]

SNU’s emergency response committee said Monday that the strike was the “last card” they hold to make the government listen to the medical community's voices. It added that the government ignored warnings from medical professors and blinded the public, warning that the medical system's collapse had already begun.

“Medical professors had asked the government to accommodate the voices of young doctors over the last three months as we knew that the Korean medical system would collapse when junior doctors and medical students did not return,” said Prof. Bang Jae-seung, a member of the committee, during a protest held at SNU’s College of Medicine in Jongno District, central Seoul.

Bang said the government should bear responsibility for the aftermath of the collapse.

The committee said the professors would cancel the strike when the government accepts their demands, namely, the complete cancellation of administrative penalties on junior doctors, the creation of a permanent committee between the government and doctors that could reflect the medical community’s voices and the readjustment of admission quotas at medical schools for the 2025 academic year.

On the same day, the Education Ministry took measures to prevent changes in medical schools’ admissions for the 2025 academic year.

At the same time, the ministry left room to negotiate the enrollment quota hike for the 2026 school year, when 2,000 seats are to be added to the current 3,058 slots. It said the admissions' size could be discussed if “scientific and reasonable alternatives exist.”

On Monday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said it would disclose online a list of hospitals and clinics that will remain open starting Tuesday, in response to the anticipated strikes by medical professors.

Emergency rooms will continue to operate at four hospitals affiliated with the city government with extended operation hours: SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center, Seoul Medical Center, Dongbu Hospital and Seonam Hospital.

Public health centers in 25 districts have also extended their hours, staying open until 8 p.m. on weekdays.

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