Gov’t orders hospitals to report on working situation of resident doctors

With only one day left before the deadline for collective resignations threatened by medical doctors from the Big 5 (Seoul National University, Yonsei Severance, Seoul Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, and Seoul St. Mary's) hospitals in protest against the government's policy of expanding the number of medical school enrollments, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo issued a public statement and strongly criticized doctors, saying, "Medical vacancies are no different from taking the lives and health of the people as hostages."

"If a medical vacuum occurs due to collective action, the entire damage will be borne by the general public," Han said at the Government Complex Seoul on Sunday. "This should never happen." "If doctors leave the hospital, they are effectively forcing patients and the public to die," a senior official in the presidential office also said. "There is no possibility of adjusting the size of additional enrollments (2,000)."

According to the Health and Welfare Ministry, 715 doctors in residency from 23 hospitals submitted their resignations by 6 p.m. on Friday. Three of the 103 resident doctors who left their hospitals have not returned to work despite the government’s administrative order to resume work. The health ministry has instructed 221 training hospitals to ‘report daily on the working situation of their doctors.’ The idea is to closely check if the doctors return to work and then leave again. The resident doctors at the Big 5 hospitals adopted a resolution to stop working from 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Korean Medical Association held an emergency committee meeting on Saturday and announced, "If even a single doctor gets disadvantage regarding his or her medical license, it will be considered a 'direct attack’ (on doctors),” adding, "We may launch actions that are gravely difficult for the government to handle."


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