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Two medics in white coats and scrubs walk through a university hospital in Seoul on March 21, 2024, amid a ratcheting up of tensions between medical school faculty and the Korean government over an increase in medical school placements. (Yonhap)

The South Korean government is expected to suspend the medical licenses of residents and interns who have abandoned their posts as early as Tuesday. Meanwhile, faculty at 30 medical colleges throughout the country have announced that they will reduce their outpatient treatments to the bare minimum starting April 1. 

The government has continued to push through its policy of increasing the national medical school admissions cap, announcing its allocation of new seats at colleges across the nation. The Yoon administration has also openly declared that disciplinary measures will be taken against the striking trainee doctors. As medical school faculty fire back with promises to majorly reduce outpatient care to support the trainee doctors’ collective resignation movement, the conflict between the state and doctors has only grown more intense.

“Starting next week, in accordance with regulations, the government will begin suspending the medical licenses of trainee doctors who are disobeying administrative orders to return to work,” said Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo at a press briefing on Thursday.

The administration has already sent notices to the striking doctors of the administrative measures to suspend their medical licenses, giving them a certain amount of time to respond or return to work. Once that window closes, the state is expected to go through with the license suspensions as announced. The government began sending such notices on March 5, and is expected to begin suspending licenses on March 26 at the earliest. 

At 100 teaching hospitals nationwide, 11,935 (92.7%, as of Tuesday) interns and residents have chosen to forfeit their employment contracts or walk out. Among them, 7,088 (as of Wednesday) have received notice that their medical license will be suspended. 

“So far, we have received no responses from any of the trainee doctors,” Park announced.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is considering shortening the period of suspension to less than three months for any trainee doctors who return to their posts before the official suspensions begin.

By announcing the allocation of new medical school seats and declaring the medical license suspension measures, the government has dug in its heels. The Medical Professors Association of Korea, which represents faculty from 39 medical colleges around the country, has vowed to join the trainee doctors’ collective resignation movement and majorly cut back on outpatient treatment. 

“Starting March 25, we will maintain all scheduled treatments and surgeries so long as they fall within the 52-hour work week. And starting April 1, we will begin reducing our outpatient treatment sessions, focusing on ER operations and surgeries to stabilize those in critical condition,” said Cho Yun-jung, who serves as head of public relations for the association’s interim leadership committee.

Until now professors had said that although they had tendered their resignations, they would continue to treat patients until the resignations were made official. Now, they have taken their actions to a new level. 

Professors at Chung-ang University Hospital have declared, “To oppose the government’s tyrannical, unilateral measures, we have no choice but to tender our resignations starting March 25.” Ahead of Chung-ang University faculty, an emergency response committee comprising the faculty associations for 20 medical colleges, including Seoul National University and Yonsei University, had already announced their intention to resign beginning March 25. 

Medical professors were among the last line of defense preventing a total meltdown of the country’s hospitals when they filled the vacuum left by the trainee doctors’ walkout. If the professors leave their posts, the vacuum will grow. 

“Anything that happens from here on is the responsibility of the government,” the Korean Medical Association has declared.  “We will mobilize all the resources at our disposal, including our membership of 140,000 doctors, to preserve the integrity of our country’s healthcare.”

Medical professors have also called on the government to come to the table for negotiations. The medical faculty association at Seoul National University has declared, “The government’s unilateral increase in medical school admissions will lead to gaps in critical medical fields for the next 10 years.” However, the faculty association has conceded a “willingness to act as a mediator in negotiations between the government and the trainee doctors.”

Appearing on the YTN network’s “News Rider” program, Bang Jae-seung, the head of the emergency committee of medical school professors, reiterated this position.

“If the government is willing to compromise on its policy measures and comes to the negotiation table, we medical professors are willing to withdraw our resignations,” Bang said.

Park Min-soo, the second vice health minister, has responded by claiming that the government asked the doctors to “form a delegation for negotiations, but that doesn’t appear to be happening.”

“We don’t have time to just wait around for the doctors to sort their delegation, so we will communicate directly with the Korea Intern Resident Association, the Medical Professors Association, and the medical community’s various emergency response committees,” Park added.

Yet no clear solution is in sight. Park emphasized that the government would “do everything in its power” to find a solution.

Meanwhile, civic groups are criticizing the government measures for failing to address the lack of essential medical personnel in critical fields as well as in the provinces outside Seoul.

“The government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions quota is, at this point, just a bunch of numbers without any concrete plans for placing doctors where they’re needed most,” read a statement by an activist group that calls for free universal healthcare while opposing the privatization of medical care.

“There is no guarantee that medical students graduating from schools outside the greater Seoul area will stay in the provinces once they graduate,” the statement continued.

“The government’s policy is just smoke and mirrors at this point, and it’s likely that the majority of students allocated to medical school in the provinces will just return to Seoul for work once they graduate,” the activist group added.

An association representing patients in critical or terminal condition, including groups like the Korea Cancer Patients Rights Council, declared, “We can’t just openly welcome a policy that stops at increasing the admissions quota by 2,000 students. There are no measures to address patients in critical or terminal condition.”

By Kim Yoon-ju, staff reporter; Cheon Ho-sung, staff reporter

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