Gov't extends incentives to keep hospitals running amid protracted walkout

The government on Tuesday decided to extend a financial incentive scheme for a month to keep hospitals up and running amid a prolonged short-staffing caused by doctors’ strike.

Paramedics transport patients to a general hospital in downtown Seoul on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The government on Tuesday decided to extend a financial incentive scheme for a month to keep hospitals up and running amid a prolonged short-staffing caused by doctors’ strike.

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said that the national health insurance system would continue providing funds for hospitals providing emergency patient care during a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting on the same day.

Support to incentivize hospitals to take in emergency and critically ill patients started in February, when junior doctors first walked away from their hospitals to protest the government's plan to hike medical school admissions. Since then, the government has spent 190 billion won ($139 million) a month.

In addition to 427 military physicians treating civilians at general hospitals, the government on Monday dispatched 36 more personnel to six-weeklong rotations at hospitals that are struggling with understaffing. The government also relieved some 146 on-duty military doctors at general hospitals to mitigate their fatigue and work burden.

While the national authorities are bracing for a long-term medical void, medical professors nationwide signaled their willingness to play hardball and downsize their services further to protest the government’s recruitment expansion plan.

A nationwide professorial committee comprised of medical faculty members from 19 schools said they would close their offices for a week if the government finalizes the admissions quota hike in medical schools this month.

The decision would be irrevocable.

Their weeklong absence will impact treatment and medical services at 50 hospitals across the country.

A doctor's white gown hangs on a closet in a general hospital in Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The medical professors also announced an upcoming daylong shutdown on Friday.

Currently, hospitals and medical professors voluntarily take a day off each week to better manage their accumulated fatigue and protest against the government’s medical policy.

The professorial committee said it will “build strategies and take necessary measures to respond to the government’s misleading health care policies.”

Regarding the looming nationwide shutdown, Health Minister Cho called on medical professors to “halt their collective actions and to think of patients and their families battling at the crossroads of life and death.”

On the same day, the government refuted an accusation from doctors who alleged that minutes of government meetings to decide the 2,000-seat increase in medical school admissions are missing.

“[The ministry] duly drafted and keeps the meeting records of the Health and Medical Services Policy Deliberation Committee per the Public Records Management Act,” Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said Tuesday.

The committee was a sub-ministerial body that led the decision-making for the 2,000-seat hike in admissions.

The act mandates authorities to transcribe specifics such as attendees, meeting organizers, dates and times, comments and details on decisions such as voting results.

Park said the ministry will “submit the meeting minutes to the Seoul High Court.”

On April 30, the court ordered the government to provide meeting records and supporting evidence for the 2,000-seat expansion by Friday. The appellate court is currently reviewing the complaint to suspend the execution of the quota hike that junior doctors and medical students lodged.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]