Doctors snub first meeting of presidential medical reform committee

A special presidential committee on medical reform was launched on Thursday as medical professors' resignations began taking effect. However, representatives from doctors' groups did not respond to the government's call to join the inaugural meeting.

Noh Yun-hong, the head of the special presidential committee on medical reform, speaks at the body's inaugural meeting on Thursday. [NEWS1]

A special presidential committee on medical reform was launched on Thursday as medical professors' resignations began taking effect. However, representatives from senior and trainee doctors' groups did not respond to the government's call to join the inaugural meeting.

The committee held its inaugural meeting on Thursday morning at the government complex in central Seoul, hoping to find a breakthrough amid an intensifying standoff between doctors and the government.

"The medical reform is a task that can no longer be delayed," Noh Yun-hong, the committee's head, said at its first meeting.

The presidential advisory body plans to discuss four main tasks for medical reform, including setting priorities for investment in essential and regional medical care and other issues to improve doctors' treatment.

Noh urged doctors' groups, including the Korean Medical Association, the nation's largest coalition of doctors, to join the committee swiftly.

"We hope that junior doctors and doctors' organizations participate in the committee to work through the medical issues together," said Noh.

The committee comprises six government officials and 20 civilian members, including 10 from medical organizations, five medical service users and five experts from different fields.

Medical professors' resignations took legal effect on Thursday, though many doctors appeared to show up for work that day. Medical professors have also announced they will take a weekly day off, complaining that they are exhausted due to the increased workload during the prolonged walkout by junior doctors.

Medical staff at a university in Gyeonggi organizes the resignations of medical professors on Thursday, before submitting them. [NEWS1]

Medical professors working at Severance Hospital on Thursday announced a day off each week from April 30, resulting in weekly shutdowns at all "Big 5" hospitals in the capital except the Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in southern Seoul.

This comes after around 1,300 professors of Yonsei University's College of Medicine, including those working at Severance Hospital, announced they would suspend all treatments and surgeries once a week starting the following week.

The move by medical professors is further disrupting the country's health care system, affecting patients.

"My daughter has been receiving treatments here since her birth, and I don't know what to do," said a tearful woman after her daughter with a rare disease was advised to seek care at another hospital by Prof. Ahn Yo-han of the pediatrics nephrology department at the Children's Hospital of Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) in Central Seoul on Wednesday.

Ahn and Prof. Kang Hee-gyung from the same department informed patients of their planned resignation on Aug. 31 and requested that they provide their preferred hospitals so they could be referred to other pediatric specialists. Two doctors have been treating 60 of 100 infant dialysis patients at the nation's only kidney disease center for infants.

Like many other medical professors, they decided to leave their positions in protest of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's plan to increase medical school admissions starting next year.

"Professor Kang sees seven patients with a rare disease that only nine people in Korea have, so I can't help but cry," a member of an online community for patients with rare diseases wrote online.

Surgeries are being delayed with hospitals adopting weekly shutdowns and more and more professors resigning.

"I thought I would have surgery this week, but on Monday, I received a call canceling the surgery," a member of one online community for thyroid patients wrote. "The surgery has been delayed indefinitely."

Patients of Asan Medical Medical Center in southern Seoul were also worried.

"I came here with the hope that the surgery would be done, but I'm afraid day-off will interfere with my treatment," said a patient in her 60s who was scheduled to undergo bladder cancer surgery.

Patients and their families wait in line in front of an emergency center at a university hospital in Seoul on Thursday. [NEWS1]

The sudden departure of medical professors is confusing patients.

"The professors were already taking off, but they didn't properly notify us," said a parent who regularly visits the hospital's pediatric pulmonology and allergies department for his daughter, who is in elementary school.

"We traveled all the way to Seoul to see the doctor, but he was suddenly replaced by another doctor. I'm thinking of filing a complaint because it's so unfair."

Kim Sung-ju, head of the Korea Cancer Patients Rights Council, condemned the professor's decision to leave the medical site.

"Surgery, medical treatment, and cancer treatment have been canceled or delayed due to the junior doctors' protest," he said. "The medical crisis will worsen with the once-a-week suspension."

"A 'once-a-week' break may seem minimal to doctors, but for patients, surgeries are reduced by 20 percent."

BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]