Medical school professor says what trainee doctors do is contradictory

Kim Yoon, a professor of medical management at Seoul National University College of Medicine, who has been strongly advocating for increasing the number of medical students, said it was "contradictory behavior" for trainee doctors to oppose raising the medical school admission quota while calling for improvements in their working environment such as heavy workload. Kim, who has been under intense attack from doctors’ associations since he recently appeared in a television debate, also said, "It's fascistic to make personal attacks.”

Kim appeared on MBC's "100 Minute Debate" on February 20 and expressed his viewpoint on the need to increase the number of medical students due to a shortage of doctors. His comments regarding the shortage of doctors, such as "Do doctors work 80 hours a week when there is no shortage of doctors in university hospitals?" and "The annual salary of a general hospital doctor has recently risen to 300 million won to 400 million won,” has been at issue.

Kim has been advocating for the increase even before the government announced the plan. Groups of doctors, including the Korea Medical Association (KMA), have been criticizing Kim, in particular, since the TV debate.

On the 21st, the KMA published an advertisement in a daily newspaper that read, "Professor, do you know why your students are acting like that?" Although the name of the professor was not included in the ad, it was interpreted as referring to Kim. In response, Kim said, "You can refute it with objective data, but making a personal attack is very fascistic." The KMA said in the ad, "Trainee doctors have endured heavy workload in the hope that they can open their own clinics once they become specialists, but the reality is disastrous.” Referring to the declining number of outpatients at clinics, the association claimed, "The government is trying to kill doctors by producing about 5,000 new doctors every year, and completely prevent doctors from opening their own clinics by prohibiting mixed practices of benefit and non-benefit medical treatment.” Kim asked back, "If you earn 400-500 million won now, then are you going to die if you earn 300 million won later?”

The KMA said in a statement on the 21st, "Despite the fact that trainee doctors are working more than 80 hours a week and receiving minimum wage-level compensation, the government has so far turned a blind eye, and is now saying that country’s medical services are disrupted as trainee doctors refuse to show up for work." It added, "Is it desirable to have a structure where hospitals cannot operate normally due to the absence of trainee doctors?"

Regarding trainee doctors demanding better working conditions and opposing the expansion of medical school admission quota, Kim said it was "contradictory behavior,” adding, "It is important for them to solve the problem, but they also care about how much money they can make after they finish their training and become a specialist.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.