More and more medical professors and senior doctors in Korea are quitting their jobs or reducing their working hours, causing patients to fear being pushed into a “hostage” situation.
Kim, the mother of a 27-month-old patient, feels worried about her daughter with kidney disease. The girl is being treated at Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital. However, the two pediatricians in charge intend to resign in May. They urged parents to look for other hospitals to treat their children in the coming months.
Kim said she couldn’t escape the feeling that her small, sick child was “being held hostage”.
“I don’t feel that doctors have any obligation or responsibility to patients, when they advise me to seek medical services elsewhere. If my daughter has to be transferred to the hospital, we will have to have the test done again from the beginning. It feels like both my daughter and I have to deal with all of this alone,” she said.
She said the hospital also required a fee of 70,000 won (51 USD) to issue the necessary documents for the transfer. Families also have to pay basic service payments.
This is one of thousands of patient families affected since the strike of resident and intern doctors took place at the end of February, to protest the decision to increase medical student enrollment quotas next year. government. The crisis continued to worsen when medical professors, who were also senior doctors, announced they would quit or reduce their working hours from early May to support their students.
Specifically, professors from Seoul National University (SNU) School of Medicine and its affiliated hospitals, one of the five largest medical centers in the country, decided to take one day off from treating patients each week.
Bang Jae-seung, head of the emergency committee of the SNU board of medical professors, announced that senior doctors will only treat inpatients and those in emergency or critical condition, on April 30. All outpatient and non-emergency medical examinations will not be accepted. According to him, the Committee will continue to consider whether there should be one day off per week in the near future.
“The decision to quit on April 30 was made to heal our bodies and minds, as we are tired from overworking for more than two months (since the intern doctors quit)” , Bang said in a press conference.
He pointed out that SNU professors have started submitting resignation letters since March 25. Each application will take effect after 30 days, which means some professors are ready to leave their jobs as early as May 2.
Medical staff at a hospital in Seoul. Image:Yonhap
Professors at Ulsan University and its affiliated training hospital (Asan Medical Center) also announced similar intentions. Those who cannot resign will take one day off every week, starting from May 3. This is one of the 5 largest medical facilities in Korea.
“We had no choice but to reschedule the treatment and surgery due to the professor’s mental and physical limitations,” they wrote in a statement.
At the same time, professors at Chungnam National University Hospital in Daejeon and Wonkwang University Hospital in North Jeolla agreed not to accept outpatients every Friday, starting this week and next week.
Despite closures, hospitals will continue to treat or operate on patients in emergency or critical condition. However, this does not alleviate the concerns of patients and their families, especially with the possibility that large medical facilities will also not work.
Since February 20, more than 9,000 resident doctors, the core force caring for and treating critically ill patients, have left the hospital. Strikers say this reform will affect the quality of medical services, causing patients’ hospital bills to increase. Instead of increasing enrollment quotas, the government should address the income and working conditions of current medical staff.
The crisis spread to the training sector, as medical students and many medical school professors quit their jobs to support resident doctors. Meanwhile, the government began to revoke the practice licenses of nearly 5,000 of the above doctors, while also considering criminal sanctions.
At the end of April, the government made a conciliatory move by agreeing to let medical schools reduce enrollment quotas, but striking doctors still protested. They believe that officials need to completely cancel the decision to increase the medical student quota, focusing on solving income problems and protecting medical staff.