South Korea deviates from suspension of doctors

SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean government said Monday it was backing away from a plan to revoke the licenses of striking junior doctors, part of an effort to get them back to work and break a months-long impasse in the country’s medical field.

It was initially unclear whether the thousands of striking doctors would return to their hospitals following the announcement. The government’s concession could also lead to accusations of unfairness, given how it has treated previous strikes and doctors who have already returned to work.

Health Minister Cho KyooHong said the government has decided not to revoke the licenses of the strikers, who are medical interns and junior doctors, regardless of whether they return to their hospitals or not. He said the government will also offer special measures to the returnees to minimize the gap in their training and help them obtain specialist licenses in time.

“The government has come to this decision after careful consideration, believing that minimizing the medical vacuum in treating emergency and critically ill cases and maintaining a training system to provide specialists in a timely manner serves the public interest more than anything else,” Cho said.

More than 90 percent of the country’s 13,000 medical students walked off the job in February to protest government plans to dramatically increase admissions to medical schools. The strike has placed significant strains on operations at the university hospitals where the medical students were trained and threatened to disrupt South Korea’s medical care system.

Some senior doctors and professors at these educational institutions supported the strike by holding rallies and temporarily stopping work or reducing their working hours.

Officials have announced plans to increase their doctor workforce by up to 10,000 by 2035 to address the country’s rapidly aging population and shortages of doctors in rural areas and in low-paying but essential specialties such as pediatrics and emergency departments.

Doctors say schools are not prepared to handle such a sudden increase in student numbers and that this would ultimately jeopardize the country’s medical care system. But critics argue that doctors, who are among the highest-paid professions in South Korea, are primarily concerned that more doctors would lower their future income.

The striking doctors suffered a major legal setback after a Seoul court ruled in favor of the government’s plans in May. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling in June.

The government later took steps to withdraw its plan to revoke the licenses of doctors who had returned to their hospitals. However, this did not happen for those who continued to stay off work. Only a small number of the strikers have returned to work. According to government records, about 8% of the 13,756 junior doctors and interns in about 210 teaching hospitals were on duty last Friday.

Government officials had previously threatened to revoke striking doctors’ licenses for three months and even prosecute them if they refused to apply to return to work. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has always said illegal strikes must be punished in accordance with the law, also described the doctors’ walkout as “illegal collective action.”

The stalemate led to unrest among doctors. According to media reports, some of them harassed colleagues who did not participate in the strike or continue it.

Health Minister Cho said the government was aware of potential criticism over the fairness of its decision not to revoke the striking doctors’ licenses. He said patient groups and some medical representatives had called for an early end to the striking doctors’ strike.

Last month, the government finalised a plan to increase enrolment numbers in medical schools by about 1,500 next year, lower than its original plan to admit 2,000 students. The current cap on medical student enrolment has remained unchanged at 3,058 since 2006, after doctors blocked previous government attempts to raise it with vehement protests.

South Korean Health and Welfare Minister Cho KyooHong speaks during a news conference at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 8, 2024. (Choi Jae-goo/Yonhap via AP)