Gov't tells 5,000 junior doctors their licenses will be suspended

The government on Monday said that it had completed sending notices of medical license suspensions to nearly 5,000 junior doctors nationwide.

Soldiers walk near the emergency room of Armed Forces Hospital in Daejeon on Monday. The government dispatched 138 public health doctors and 20 military doctors to 20 general hospitals for four weeks from Monday to fill in for disrupted medical services. [KIM SEONG-TAE]

The government on Monday said that it had completed sending notices of medical license suspensions to nearly 5,000 junior doctors nationwide.

Intern and resident doctors in Korea have been staging mass walkouts since mid-February to protest the government's 2,000-person enrollment quota hike at medical schools.

As of 11 a.m. Friday, 11,994 intern and resident doctors — or about 93 percent of the total — had left their work from 100 major training hospitals nationwide.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare added that prior notices of administrative procedures were sent to 4,944 trainee doctors through Friday.

The notice recipients who do not submit their responses by March 25 could have their licenses suspended.

Under the Administrative Procedures Act, government ministries are required to notify parties that are to be "restricted of their rights or interests" of the “factual grounds” and “legal basis” for the dispositions and collect their opinions.

However, the ministry stressed that it intends to take lenient measures if these doctors return to work before administrative procedures to suspend medical licenses are completed.

“We plan to take lenient actions toward junior doctors who come back before the administrative procedures are done,” Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said on a KBS radio earlier in the day, asking interns and residents to return to their workplaces quickly.

Jun Byung-wang, a senior official at the Health Ministry, said that the merciful approach is to “open up a way for trainee doctors to resume work quickly” and that different penalties should be considered, as it may be unfair to punish those who left their work at different dates in the same way.

A paramedic enters an emergency room of a hospital in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang, on Monday. [NEWS1]

Starting Tuesday, the government will operate reporting and protection centers for junior doctors who are attacked for resuming work.

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong, the day earlier, warned junior doctors on strike against attacking others who have returned to their jobs, adding that the government will take stern actions regarding alleged harassment and intimidation against trainee doctors not participating in the strike.

The government said it will regularly monitor those needing protection and may even relocate those willing to be moved to other hospitals due to alleged attacks.

A hotline for these trainee doctors to report their cases via text messages and phone calls was to be set up on Monday, according to the Health Ministry.

From Monday, the government will allocate 188.2 billion won ($144 million) from the health insurance fund for a month to compensate hospitals that have offered emergency services to critically ill patients and newly set service payments for emergency consultations.

A total of 158 doctors — 20 military doctors and 138 public health doctors — filled in for disrupted medical services at 20 hospitals for four weeks from Monday.

The Defense Ministry said the same day it would send more military doctors to general hospitals if additionally requested, saying that the dispatch would have a minimal impact on the military’s operation as some 2,400 military doctors are serving.

Military hospitals have been open to the public since Feb. 20 to minimize medical service disruptions. As of Monday noon, 200 citizens had been treated at these hospitals.

Last week, the government also authorized nurses at major hospitals to perform CPR and administer medication in emergency cases to make up for the shortfall of doctors.

According to the government on Monday, hospitals nationwide are maintaining their emergency medical services, with 398 emergency wards out of 408 ERs in operation.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]