Gov't welcomes Supreme Court's dismissal of injunction appeal from doctors' groups

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Gov't welcomes Supreme Court's dismissal of injunction appeal from doctors' groups

Published: 20 Jun. 2024, 18:50

LEE SOO-JUNG
lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr

A patient is on a bed for treatment in a general hospital in Daegu on Thursday. [YONHAP]

The government on Thursday welcomed a Supreme Court decision that rejected the medical community's injunction appeal, seemingly concluding the legal debate over admissions quota hikes in medical schools.

On Wednesday, the country's top court upheld the lower courts’ decisions, dismissing an injunction request to halt the government's medical recruitment expansion.

The judiciary cited that the “suspension of the admissions quota hike in a situation — where the country is speculated to see a physician shortage in future — could pose a material disruption to expanding medical recruitment, which is crucial to public health.”

Also, the court clarified that only medical students are eligible for filing the injunction. It disqualified requests from other plaintiffs, who are medical professors, junior doctors and high schoolers aspiring to enter medical schools, because they bear “no legal interest” to the case.

However, the court said that “deterioration in educational quality” will be unlikely because training and academic courses to cultivate medical capabilities are generally taught to students one or two years after admission.

The explanation seemingly addresses medical students’ concerns that schools would be overwhelmed in handling the increased sizes of incoming classes, and that such a burden would negatively impact education quality.

The Supreme Court ruling comes as validation for the government in its push for medical reform.

Yi Han-kyung, vice minister for disaster and safety management, said that medical reform would “enhance the Korean health care system a step further” in a way “different from what doctors and medical students are picturing and worried about” during a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on Thursday.

Yi added that doctors should “cooperate [with the government] to advance the health care system” instead of insisting on the renegotiation of student quota allocations in medical schools, as the Supreme Court has justified the quota expansion.

The Interior Ministry noted that the government is “open for all types of dialogue” with doctors, calling them to return to hospitals and treat patients. Yi also said that doctors’ pride should stem from their duty and privilege of saving people’s lives.

Lim Hyun-taek, center, president of the Korean Medical Association, attends a questioning on Thursday at the Seoul Metropolitan Policy Agency on the charges of inciting junior doctors to resign in February. [YONHAP]

On the same day, the largest doctors’ group in the country, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), said it would decide on whether to “strike indefinitely” in a meeting on Saturday.

The KMA’s announcement came after its leader Lim Hyun-taek was accused of pushing the organization into a strike situation without any prior consultation with its members and colleagues.

The KMA on Thursday also established a special committee, encompassing medical professors, community doctors and junior doctors, to convey the “united voices of the medical community” to the government.

Medical professors at Seoul National University’s four affiliated hospitals are voting to continue or stop their indefinite strike and return to their posts. An emergency response committee representing the professors said the voting results would be available on Friday or Saturday.

Patients are calling for more to be done as the medical community shows no signs of slowing down its strike actions.

The Korea Severe Disease Association said Thursday that it requested the Health Ministry to hold a public hearing session to discuss a means of permitting foreign doctors to treat patients in Korea, saying, “Now is the time for devising plans.”

The association said that there are hundreds of doctors with foreign medical licenses in Korea and such manpower could be used to avoid a health care shortage.

Although the government floated the idea of allowing individuals with foreign medical licenses to practice medicine in the country last month, the Health Ministry said Thursday that “it is not reviewing an option to host a public hearing.”

Yet, the ministry noted that officials are discussing ways of using foreign doctors in a “very serious situation as an exception.”

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