Doctors from the Seoul Medical Association are holding a rally in front of the Presidential Office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 15th to oppose the government’s expansion of medical school admissions quota. 2024.2.15 Yonhap News
The collective backlash of doctors against the government’s announcement to increase the number of medical students by 2,000 is taking shape.
On the 15th, 16 city and provincial medical associations under the Korean Medical Association (KMA), mainly comprised of private doctors, held demonstrations throughout the country. About 300 doctors from the Seoul Medical Association (police estimate) criticized the government’s drastic increase in medical schools in front of the Presidential Office in Yongsan, Seoul at 7 p.m. on this day. Kim Taek-woo, chairman of the medical association emergency committee, said, “The government is giving us a rotten carrot called an ‘essential medical (support) policy package’ and asking us to increase the number of people by 2,000.” Park Myeong-ha, president of the Seoul Medical Association, said, “A legal support group has also been formed to protect doctors (who took collective action).” Kim Da-in, a first-year resident at Wonkwang University, stood on the podium and said, “I submitted my resignation today and attended the rally without notice to protect my livelihood,” and added, “I think training is meaningless after the increase in medical schools.” He continued, “They ask how a doctor leaves the hospital and leaves his patients behind, but I thought it was kind to keep me right away because without me there would be no patients.” About 10 members of the Daejeon City Medical Association also held a rally this afternoon. Ulsan, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Chungbuk, Gangwon, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam, Gyeongbuk, Gyeongnam, and Jeju Island medical associations also held rally rallies.
Park Dan, chairman of the Korean Medical Residents Association (Daejeon Medical Association), which has over 15,000 residents, posted his resignation on social media that day. He said, “I am giving up training and leaving the emergency room at Severance Hospital. I can no longer endure the depression that is building up as I face death, the fear of medical lawsuits, the excessive work hours of 80 hours a week, and the low wages of the minimum hourly wage.” “He said. At the same time, he said, “Please never take group action.” His own resignation was interpreted to mean that it was for ‘personal reasons’ rather than a ‘collective action’ that could be subject to government sanctions. Immediately after Chairman Park announced his resignation this afternoon, 126 residents, all residents at Wonkwang University Hospital, submitted letters of resignation. Some residents at Asan Medical Center in Seoul also submitted their resignation. If residents training at major hospitals go on strike and leave in large numbers, it will be difficult for operating rooms and emergency rooms to operate normally.
Graphics = Song Yunhye
Medical students are also showing signs of collective action. On the 5th, about 70 fourth-year students at Hallym University College of Medicine decided to take an ‘allied leave of absence’ for a year in protest against the increase in the number of students in the medical school. Starting today, medical students at 40 medical schools across the country began taking surveys asking whether they would take a leave of absence from school. The alliance’s leave of absence may spread.
Doctor groups say that even if the number of medical school students is greatly increased, doctors will not go to essential medical services such as surgery, emergency medicine, and neurosurgery, or local medical services, as the government claims. It is argued that the root cause is that the unit price per medical service paid by the government for essential medical care is still low compared to major overseas countries, and the risk of doctors being embroiled in lawsuits continues to be high. This means that even if the number of doctors is greatly increased, only skin and beauty products, which are relatively easy and easy to make money, will expand.
According to the Korean Medical Association, in the case of ‘cerebrovascular surgery’, which is directly related to the patient’s life, the surgical fee in Korea is 1.42 million won, which is 21% of the 6.62 million won in Japan. The Korean Medical Association says that the average annual prosecution rate per doctor in Korea is 264 times higher than in Japan. A professor at a medical school in Seoul said, “It is realistically difficult to open a clinic in a rural area as the provinces are shrinking due to low birth rates and the population is concentrated in the metropolitan area.”
Graphics = Song Yunhye
Doctor groups also say that if the number of doctors is increased according to the government’s plan, an ‘overload’ situation will occur and the public will suffer harm. An official from the Korean Medical Association said, “We should not simply compare the number of doctors with OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) member countries, which have very different medical care systems from ours,” and added, “It is reasonable to compare with Japan, where population changes such as aging are similar to ours.” According to the Korea Medical Association, in 2006, when Japan’s aging rate (population over 65 years old) reached 20%, the number of doctors per 1,000 people was 2.46. On the other hand, in Korea, the number of doctors per 1,000 people is expected to be 2.84 in 2025, when the aging rate reaches 20%, even without increasing the number of medical schools. Considering the populations of both countries, he said that Korea has 30,000 more doctors than Japan.
An overabundance of doctors can also lead to an increase in the burden of national medical expenses. As the number of doctors increases, the ‘competition for survival’ intensifies and new medical demands such as various tests arise, increasing the burden of medical expenses. The Korean Medical Association estimates that if the number of medical school students continues to increase by 2,000, each person will have to pay an additional 60,000 won in health insurance premiums per month in 2040. An official from the Korean Medical Association said, “Even now, local medical schools lack professors to teach basic medicine such as anatomy and physiology,” and added, “If the number of medical students is increased all at once, field training will become poor and patients will ultimately suffer.”
2024-02-15 11:47:37
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