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A person lies on a bench in the waiting room of a university-affiliated hospital in Daegu on April 22, 2024, amid a protracted standoff between trainee doctors and the government over a plan to increase medical school admissions. (Yonhap)

The South Korean government said it cannot accept physicians’ calls for postponing a planned increase in the nationwide medical school admission cap or starting discussions over on the matter.

Meanwhile, medical school faculty members have begun either resigning or cutting back their treatment hours.

In a message to physicians delivered at a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting Monday on the current collective action by doctors, Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyoo-hong urged them to “present a unified plan grounded in a scientific basis and rational logic, rather than [calling for] starting the [medical college admission cap increase] discussions over from square one or deferring it for one year, which is not something that meets the public’s standards.”

His remarks amounted to a rejection of calls by the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the Korean Internet Resident Association (KIRA), and other physician groups to scrap plans for increasing the medical college admission cap for the 2025 academic year.

This week, the administration plans to hold a first meeting of a special committee on health care reforms, which is to discuss details concerning essential medical service policies. In addition to the special committee, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has also proposed a framework for discussions in which relevant government offices would meet with the KMA, the Medical Professors Association of Korea (MPAK), and other groups.

But the KMA, KIRA, and others have indicated that they do not intend to take part in either the special committee or the physician-government discussion framework.

Medical school professors have already begun leaving hospitals and reducing their treatment hours.

Choi Chang-min, an Asan Medical Center professor who chairs the national medical college faculty emergency committee, explained, “The preparations for my resignation are all complete, and I will be having my last treatment on the 25th [Thursday].”

“Other professors are quietly making their own preparations,” he added.

The emergency committee for Daejeon’s Chungnam National University Hospital and Sejong Chungnam National University Hospital said medical college faculty members planned to suspend their Friday outpatient treatment and surgery duties as of this week.

In response, Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said, “According to education authorities, there have been no cases of [medical college professors] for whom resignations are expected to be accepted.” 

Patients and hospital workers called for dialogue between physicians and the administration.

In a press conference Monday, the Korea Severe Disease Association and Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union said, “While the administration and physician groups are flexing their muscles at each other, patient lives are being endangered.”

“The physician groups and administration both need to make a decision and take action to normalize health care services,” they stressed.

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

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]