Health minister implores junior doctors to return to work, but concedes little

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong pleaded with striking junior doctors to return to work in his first press conference in over a year on Wednesday.

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong, center, speaks at his first press conference at the Seoul Press Center in Jung District, central Seoul, on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong pleaded with striking junior doctors to return to work in his first press conference in over a year on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters from the Health Ministry’s press pool at the Seoul Press Center in Jung District, central Seoul, Cho said the government “does not want to take punitive measures” against trainee doctors participating in the monthslong walkout but did not offer any significant concessions to the medical community.

Over 13,000 junior doctors have submitted resignations and refused to report to work at hospitals nationwide since Feb. 20 to protest the government’s plan to hike the medical school admissions quota by 2,000 spots.

The annual medical recruitment quota has been capped at 3,058 since 2006.

Cho refused to say whether the government plans to suspend the licenses of all doctors who have submitted resignations, but instead called on the strikers to “quickly return to their posts so that the healthcare system can go back to normal.”

The health minister noted that even if the government were to make good on its threat to penalize doctors on strike, it would take over three months to suspend the license of a doctor who ignores a back-to-work order.

According to Cho, the government is willing to exercise “sufficient consideration” toward any doctor who returns to work before their license suspension becomes effective.

Cho further called on medical professors to persuade junior doctors to return to their workplaces and pledged to support any efforts to convince trainees to call off their strike.

Medical professors at teaching hospitals, who are usually the foremost specialists in their fields and supervise the training of junior doctors, began taking extra days off mid-week at the end of last month, citing fatigue from overwork due to the prolonged absence of trainee doctors.

However, observers believe their days off are aimed at increasing pressure on the government to compromise on its stance that a hike in annual medical recruitment is necessary to forestall a predicted shortage of 15,000 doctors over the coming decade.

The health minister also said the government currently has no plans to sue doctors for impeding normal hospital operations through their absence.

Some of Seoul’s largest hospitals have closed inpatient wards to cut operating costs after understaffing forced them to cancel or reduce medical appointments and operations, which are their primary sources of revenue.

Students and junior doctors at Gyeongsang National University’s medical school and affiliated hospital hold a black funerary banner intended to symbolize the “death of medical education” as they stage a protest against the government’s plan to increase the annual medical school admissions quota on Wednesday in Jinju, South Gyeongsang. [YONHAP]

On Monday, the health minister called on striking junior doctors to return to hospitals before Tuesday or risk delaying board certification of their specialization.

Under the ministry’s regulations, junior doctors who have been absent from training for more than three months cannot fulfill the minimum work requirement to sit board certification exams.

Cho told junior doctors to return to hospitals as soon as possible, warning further delays could “severely impact their careers.”

The minister also called on doctors to engage in dialogue with the government but added that they should not set “unrealistic preconditions which do not correspond to the public’s perspective,” such as demanding that the government scrap its medical recruitment expansion plan before talks begin.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]