A major conflict is breaking out in the Korean medical community due to the latest policy of the doctors **South Korea**. Interns and residents at five major hospitals plan to resign en masse in opposition to the expansion of medical schools. So far, more than 700 doctors have announced their resignations as a sign of concern, fearing a "medical mess". In this regard, South Korea has spoken out intensively, urging doctors to exercise restraint and demanding that the medical system remain stable. At the same time, Han ** insisted on the expansion plan, and the two sides continued to "stumble".
Doctors resigned en masse.
Doctors from the five major hospitals in Seoul (Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hospital, Samsung Seoul Hospital, Seoul Asan Hospital, and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital) passed a resolution on the 16th to collectively submit their resignations on the 19th and stop working from 6 am on the 20th.
South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare said 715 doctors from 23 hospitals across South Korea submitted resignation letters, Yonhap News Agency reported. Although no resignation report has been accepted yet, the Emergency Medical Countermeasures Situation Room has been activated as a precautionary measure.
The trigger for the mass resignation of doctors originated from a policy announced earlier this month in South Korea**. According to Yonhap News Agency, on February 6, local time, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education of South Korea announced that they will expand the enrollment of new medical students from the 2025 academic year college entrance examination, and the scale will increase from the current 3,058 to 5,058, an increase of about 65%, which is the first time in 27 years that South Korea has expanded the enrollment scale of medical schools.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) cited the expansion as a reason for the expansion of medical institutions, which is mainly due to the shortage of doctors due to the difficulties in primary care and the collapse of the local healthcare system, and that the new enrollment places will be allocated to medical schools in non-metropolitan areas.
South Korea's health ministry said that given the rapid aging of the country's population, South Korean society urgently needs more doctors, and the number of doctors relative to the population in South Korea is currently the lowest level in the developed world. But the doctors' community argues that the policy of adding people will eventually lead to vicious competition among doctors and provide excessive medical services, thus placing a greater burden on public health insurance programs.
The news of the expansion of the medical school has caused an uproar among medical groups such as the Korean Medical Association, who have expressed strong opposition to the expansion policy. On February 15, local time, the Korean Medical Doctor Association said that it held rallies across the country centered on its 16 municipal doctors' associations, and hundreds of doctors, interns and medical students took to the streets to demand the withdrawal of the enrollment expansion plan. They held banners with the words "Oppose the expansion of medical student enrollment," "Blind expansion of medical schools will lead to the collapse of quality medical services," and "Unprepared basic policies are the end of the medical system."
Di Zhigang, a second-level researcher at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies of the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences and chief expert of the Institute of Northeast Asian Strategy, told Beijing Business Daily that South Korea's medical system is currently facing many problems such as resource shortage and imbalance. Previously, it was speculated that there was a shortage of 5,000 doctors in South Korea's medically weak fields, and the gap will be even greater in the future as South Korea's aging population intensifies. But in the eyes of doctors, they believe that there are already enough medical staff in South Korea, that the expansion will lead to increased competition, and that existing doctors should be paid more.
* Emergency response.
Han ** activated the emergency diagnosis and treatment system to respond to the collective action of doctors. Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korea's Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Gyu-hong said that 400 emergency medical institutions across the country will fully implement 24-hour operation, and 35 local medical centers, 6 Red Cross hospitals, health stations and other public hospitals will extend outpatient hours and expand online diagnosis and treatment. In addition, Han ** also recently issued an order requiring all hospitals to report daily on the resignation, vacation, and departure of intern residents. The ministry said it would severely punish those who refused to return to work, including the revocation of medical licenses.
On the 18th, South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-so issued a national statement saying that if doctors resign en masse, it will lead to a gap in medical services, and the people will bear the brunt of the problem. He urged doctors to exercise restraint and stick to their posts.
On the other hand, the Korean Medical Association continues to support the resignation of doctors. Yonhap News Agency reported that the association's "Emergency Countermeasures Committee to Prevent the Expansion of Medical University Recruitment" (hereinafter referred to as the "Countermeasures Committee") held its first meeting on the 17th and said that it deeply regretted the "inappropriate statements" such as threatening to revoke licenses to prevent doctors from voluntarily resigning, and would consider taking countermeasures in accordance with the law if they continued to put pressure on doctors. The "countermeasures committee" also reiterated that the two sides can only start dialogue after the cancellation of the policy of increasing the enrollment of 2,000 people at the medical university.
Yonhap News Agency said that the medical community criticized the expansion plan launched by ** as a "hasty unilateral decision". However, South Korea has firmly taken a stance on expanding its recruitment. "There is no room for delay. In his speech on the 18th, Han Deok-so said that medical reform cannot be achieved without securing a sufficient number of doctors. South Korea's "East Asia" reported that a senior official of the ** room said on the 16th: "Although (doctors) may want to reduce the scale of the expansion of the medical university through collective action, there is no idea of making concessions at all." ”
This is not the first time that South Korea has clashed with South Korea's medical community over the expansion of medical school enrollment. In July 2020, then-Moon Jae-in** announced that the country planned to increase the annual enrollment of 3,058 students at the medical school by about 400 over the next 10 years, while rewarding students majoring in lower-paying majors such as epidemiology and those who volunteered to work in public health in rural areas.
The measure was criticized by South Korean medical circles as a "hasty unilateral decision" that could provoke undesirable competition. Subsequently, the Korean Medical Association led a nationwide collective strike of doctors. In the end, South Korea** and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea reached an agreement with the medical community on the policy of expanding public medical resources, and stopped promoting the policy of expanding the enrollment of medical colleges and adding public medical universities.
The two sides are deadlocked, and the patients are guilty.
In the eyes of doctors in the ** enrollment expansion policy, the most important thing is not the number of doctors, but the policy issue. Lee Jong-bok, president of the Wonju Medical Association, believes that the lack of doctors in the pediatric and adolescent department or outside the Seoul circle is not a problem of the number of doctors, but a problem of medical policies, systems, and the distribution of doctors, according to the report of "Han Nation**".
It is not that the number of doctors is small, but that the salaries are ridiculously low, and there are concerns about criminal penalties and other reasons, that doctors tend to avoid obstetrics, gynecology and surgery. More than 10 doctors affiliated with the Daejeon City Medical Association shouted in front of the Daejeon City Party Headquarters, the ruling National Power Party.
The Korean Medical Association stressed that increasing the number of medical students could adversely affect the quality of education and training, and that instead of expecting a trickle-down effect of the expansion in 10 or 15 years, it would be better to sincerely participate in the discussion of saving the basic medical system that is collapsing.
According to the Xinhua news agency, some critics have also pointed out that medical professionals are actually worried that the expansion plan will lead to a decrease in their income. According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Research**, there will be a shortage of 27,232 doctors by 2035.
South Korea** believes that even if the medical school expands, 5,000 doctors a year will "not be enough" and is still planning how to rehire or reassign retired doctors.
The standoff between the medical community and ** has plunged South Korea into a panic of chaos in the medical system. South Korea's "East Asia" reported that some surgeries have been postponed.
A family member of a patient who was originally scheduled to undergo lung cancer surgery in a hospital said on the Internet on the 16th that they received ** on the same day and were told that the operation could not be carried out because the doctor was preparing to strike. In this regard, the patient's family said that they never dreamed that it would affect their family in the end, "Is it what doctors should do to threaten the patient's life to ensure a job?" ”
It has been reported that major hospitals such as Seoul have begun to experience delays in diagnosis and treatment, and some patients with brain tumors and stomach cancer have had their surgeries delayed. In some hospitals, medical examinations such as electrocardiograms (ECGs) are omitted on the grounds that there are no interns.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Fang Binnan Zhao Tianshu.