The "wave of resignations" initiated by South Korean medical personnel to expand the enrollment of medical students continues to spread, and the crisis in the medical system has intensified. South Korea** rejected the request of the doctors' group to withdraw the expansion plan on February 25 and decided to send prosecutors to the health department to prepare for legal action against the resigned doctors who refused to return to work.
South Korea** announced earlier this month that it would increase the number of students enrolled in medical schools in colleges and universities to 5,058 in the 2025 academic year from 3,058 in order to address the shortage of doctors. The expansion has met with strong opposition from medical groups and medical students, who say it would lead to overtreatment and strain the health care system. Some critics have pointed out that medical staff are actually worried that the expansion plan will reduce their income.
The Korean Medical Association of Korea held an emergency meeting in Seoul on the 25th, demanding that ** withdraw the plan to expand the enrollment of medical students. They then went to the vicinity of the office in South Korea, calling the expansion plan "unscientific" and refusing to accept the return-to-work instructions issued by **.
South Korea's ** Yoon Suk-yeol's office criticized the collective resignation of doctors on the 25th, saying that "no doctor in the world will take patients hostage to the extreme behavior."
* Cheng Taiyin, director of the office's policy office, said at a press conference that he would not reduce the number of expanded places as requested by the doctor group. "We originally planned to recruit 3,000 more people to fill the vacancy of doctors, but after taking into account a number of factors, it is now set at 2,000. We still think we need to recruit so many people. ”
Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Gyu-hong said that it had been decided to send prosecutors to the ministry to prepare for legal action. According to South Korea, this may further exacerbate the confrontation between doctors and **.
A hospital in Gwangju, South Korea, Feb. 23.
According to South Korean law, if a doctor fails to return to work as required, he or she will be banned from practicing medicine for up to one year, and in serious cases, he or she will be sentenced to up to three years in prison. Doctors sentenced to imprisonment, deferred sentences or suspended sentences may have their licenses revoked.
According to data released by South Korea**, since the 19th, nearly 9,000 doctors across the country have resigned, more than 10,000 medical students in colleges and universities have collectively applied for suspension, and many hospitals are short of manpower and have difficulty operating. South Korea** has elevated the crisis level of the country's healthcare system to the highest level of "severe".
As the "wave of resignations" spread, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense opened military hospitals to provide medical services to the population. Prime Minister Han Deok-so went to a military hospital in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul, on the 25th to express his gratitude to military medical personnel for helping to reduce the burden of medical care, and at the same time to express condolences to the patients who were being treated there.