DOCTORS NOT IN Unionized workers at Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea stage a demonstration on Monday (June 17, 2024), urging professors to withdraw their walkout. About 55 percent of medical professors, who are against the government’s reforms, are expected to take part in the strike. Yonhap
SEOUL – Medical professors at hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University (SNU) began an indefinite walkout on Monday, according to a group of patients, with about 55 percent of the professors expected to join the move against the government's medical reform.
A total of 529 professors at the four hospitals -- SNU Hospital, SNU Bundang Hospital, Seoul Metropolitan Government SNU Boramae Medical Center, and SNU Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Center -- have pledged to walk off the job.
However, emergency rooms and treatment for critically ill patients will not be affected, hospital officials said.
"We are not suspending all treatments entirely. We are only halting treatments for patients who can receive care at other hospitals or whose conditions will not be adversely affected by a temporary delay in treatment," an emergency committee of SNU medical professors said.
"As hospitals will continue to provide care for patients with critical or rare diseases, the actual number of treatments will decrease by 40 percent due to the walkout," it added.
Despite fierce protests by trainee doctors, the government finalized an admissions quota hike of some 1,500 students for medical schools late last month, marking the first such increase in 27 years.
A patients' advocacy group urged SNU medical professors to withdraw the walkout, highlighting that patients with non-critical symptoms are just as concerned as those with serious conditions.
"Taking advantage of patients' concerns and damage to press the government cannot be justified under any circumstances," the Korea Alliance of Patients Organization said in a statement.
The organization added that patients' safety may be at stake if medical professors launch a walkout, as medical services have already been disrupted due to the strike of junior doctors, which has lasted for nearly four months.
Meanwhile, the government urged SNU hospital leaders not to authorize the walkout and to consider requiring professors to compensate for losses incurred by the hospitals due to the collective action.
The walkout by SNU medical professors came a day ahead of a nationwide strike of community doctors scheduled for Tuesday, organized by the Korea Medical Association (KMA), the country's top lobby group of doctors.
The government has ordered community doctors to continue providing medical treatment and report to authorities if they close their practices on the day of the strike. It will issue another order for community doctors to return if more than 30 percent of them join the planned strike.
On the previous day, the KMA announced it would consider postponing the walkout if the government agrees to restart discussions on the medical school quota increase from scratch and cancels all administrative orders issued against trainee doctors who have left hospitals since February.
The health ministry, however, dismissed the request, noting it is "inappropriate for the KMA to make policy demands to the government under the condition of an illegal walkout."
South Korea’s biggest doctors' group offered Sunday to vote on whether to go ahead with a mass walkout this week if the government accepts three demands, including revisiting the issue of increasing medical school admissions.
The Korean Medical Association (KMA) made the offer two days before it is scheduled to launch the walkout involving medical professors at the "Big 5" hospitals in Seoul, as well as community doctors. Yonhap