The Korean Ministry of Health announced that licensed medical staff from abroad will be able to practice legally in this country.
The information was given in the context that the country is currently facing major disruptions in medical services due to a strike by intern doctors extending into its third month.
South Korea stipulates that people with overseas licenses can practice medicine here when approved by the Health Minister amid the highest level of health crisis.
Experts assess this as a move by the government to prepare for the wave of strikes to get worse. Previously, the Ministry of Health only accepted people with practice certificates issued by this country.
Last week, Deputy Health Minister Park Min-soo said that the government had given medical schools autonomy to decide on enrollment targets in the range of 50-100%, not requiring the number of 2,000 as before. At the same time, officials delayed suspending the licenses of striking doctors and did not issue mobilization orders for professors who resigned. This is considered a compromise move, but doctors’ associations still firmly demand that the government cancel the decision to increase the medical student quota and reconsider the health reform plan from the beginning.
The deadlock between the government and the medical community continues to put Korean patients in a difficult situation. Many medical procedures such as surgery and cancer treatments are postponed or canceled.
Since February 20, more than 9,000 resident doctors, the core force that cares for and treats critically ill patients, have left the hospital to protest the government’s policy of increasing medical school enrollment quotas by 2,000. 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 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. All of this puts Korean healthcare in crisis, with many patients having their treatment or surgery delayed.
Meanwhile, the government believes that increasing targets is necessary to cope with the aging population and strengthen the medical force for essential sectors such as pediatrics, emergency medicine, and surgery.