\nSEOUL, The health ministry said Thursday it will take stern measures if any collective action by doctors over a plan to boost the number of medical students threatens the safety of patients.<\/p>\n
Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo made the remarks as tension between doctors and the government has grown over last week’s decision to add 2,000 to the country’s medical school enrollment quota next year, marking a sharp rise from the current 3,058 seats.<\/p>\n
Park called for doctors not to “threaten the life and health of patients. If it becomes a threat, the government will sternly respond in accordance with law and principle.”<\/p>\n
As some trainee doctors have reportedly moved toward a collective submission of letters of resignation, Park said the government will push for tasks to improve their working conditions.<\/p>\n
Still, no trainee doctors have submitted a letter of resignation, Park told reporters.<\/p>\n
In a bid to block the potential strike, the health ministry ordered training hospitals to reject a collective submissi
\non of letters of resignation from residents, to block them from carrying out the strike as non-medical personnel by law.<\/p>\n
Unless they step down legally as doctors, the residents must return to work if the government issues an administrative order because doctors are classified as essential workers.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Park told MBC radio that the ministry will fully expand telemedicine services and mobilize assistant nurses if a major association of trainee doctors pushes ahead with a nationwide strike in protest of the medical school enrollment hike.<\/p>\n
The government has prepared to cope with the looming strike by trainee doctors, including plans to use military and public hospitals to respond to emergency medical services, Park said.<\/p>\n
Although the government says the hike in the medical enrollment quota is needed to address a shortage of doctors in rural areas and essential medical fields, doctors say such a hike may aggravate problems associated with an oversupply of medical personnel in the market.<\/p>\n
Also
\non Thursday, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), another major lobbying group of doctors, plans to hold nationwide rallies to protest against the planned hike in medical school enrollment quota.<\/p>\n
The KMA, which has threatened to stage a nationwide strike, is set to hold a meeting Saturday to discuss its actions.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Park Dan, the head of the Korea Intern Resident Association, said he will step down next week as a doctor and the association’s head to protest against the planned hike.<\/p>\n
In another sign of simmering tension, fourth-year students of the college of medicine at Hallym University in the eastern city of Chuncheon unanimously agreed to take a leave of absence for one year in an effort to prevent the government’s “medical reform for the worse.”<\/p>\n
A major association of medical schools will also carry out a survey of whether to join the move and take a one-year leave of absence and will make a decision “within a few days.”<\/p>\n
Members of the group, mostly students of 40 medical schools nationwide,
\nhave discussed what to do in response to the government’s decision.<\/p>\n
Source: Yonhap News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL, The health ministry said Thursday it will take stern measures if any collective action by doctors over a plan to boost the number of medical students threatens the safety of patients.<\/p>\n
Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo made the remarks a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n