The health ministry on Thursday ruled out negotiations with the medical community over a plan to boost the number of medical students, reaffirming its hard-line stance despite a prolonged walkout by junior doctors that has caused surgery cancellations or delays at major hospitals for nearly four weeks.
More than 90 percent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors walked off the job in the form of mass resignations to protest the government’s decision to increase enrollment at medical schools by 2,000 spots.
The labor action has shown signs of escalating as medical school professors threatened to submit resignations en masse unless the government presents a breakthrough in the prolonged walkout.
“There are no cases of the government engaging in negotiation with a specific professional group regarding the enrollment quota,” Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters.
“The government cannot especially respond to threats claiming that the lives of patients will be critical unless we engage in talk
s,” Park said.
The labor action has particularly crippled services at five major general hospitals in Seoul because they are heavily relied on trainee doctors.
The five hospitals — Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, Severance Hospital, Seoul National University Hospital and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital — have played a key role in providing medical care for critical patients.
Earlier in the day, the government said it will invest funds to help major hospitals in other regions increase their level of medical services to match the five hospitals in Seoul.
South Korea has been pushing to increase physician numbers as a way to resolve the shortage of doctors in rural areas and essential medical fields, such as pediatrics and neurosurgery, and also given the super-aging population.
Doctors say the quota hikes will undermine the quality of medical education and other services, and result in higher medical costs for patients. They have called for measures to first address the underpaid specialists and i
mprove the legal protection against excessive medical malpractice lawsuits.
Source: Yonhap News Agency