Gov't extends recruitment period for junior doctors as 98% of slots remain open

Social Affairs

Gov't extends recruitment period for junior doctors as 98% of slots remain open

Published: 07 Aug. 2024, 17:20 Updated: 07 Aug. 2024, 17:40

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

A medical professional walks in front of a recruitment poster at a general hospital in downtown Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

The government said Wednesday that it would extend a recruitment period for junior doctors to give them another chance to return to their hospitals.

During a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said the government would “continue its lenient measures for junior doctors” and was “willing to accept most of their demands except for scrapping the admissions quota hike in medical schools.”

The extension — not scheduled initially — came after the applications received through last month fell short of the expected numbers.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said only 104 junior doctors applied for 7,645 available slots at 126 hospitals in the first recruitment batch. Over 98 percent of slots remained vacant.

Starting Friday, junior doctors in their first year of training can submit their applications until next Wednesday, and those in their second to fourth year can do so until July 16.

Han said the government would “sternly respond to actions that hinder or prevent junior doctors from returning to hospitals,” noting that authorities are fully aware that members of the medical community have doxxed returned junior doctors and witch-hunted them as outlaws.

The Health Ministry also said that some 625 resigned junior doctors were newly hired as general practitioners in general hospitals. This figure accounted for 11 percent of the 5,701 junior doctors dismissed previously.

The new employment means they would practice medicine with general medical licenses, which they earned after graduating from medical school, but they would not pursue medical specialty licenses as junior doctors.

Despite the extension to encourage junior doctors to return, the medical community remains skeptical about such gestures.

An anonymous source from the medical community told Yonhap News Agency that junior doctors are "unlikely to return to hospitals even if the government extends the recruitment period.” The source added that the government is “building its own narrative to blame junior doctors” for the medical vacuum.

On the same day, the government also discussed measures to maintain emergency medical services, which have been heavily impacted by the junior doctors’ walkout.

These measures include incentivizing doctors to serve in the emergency medicine field and assigning military and state-hired doctors currently stationed in tertiary hospitals to new duties in emergency rooms and regional emergency medical centers.

The government will also increase the treatment cost for non-urgent patients with light symptoms who visit regional emergency centers to discourage them from visiting and allow centers to focus on urgent patients.

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