Gov't tells junior doctors to return or face delayed certification

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong called on striking junior doctors to return to hospitals before Tuesday if they wish to qualify for a board-certified qualification exam next year. The junior doctors’ walkout reached the three-month mark on Monday.

Two medical professionals holding their white gowns walk inside a compound of a general hospital in downtown Seoul on Monday. [NEWS1]

The government on Monday called on striking junior doctors to return to hospitals before Tuesday or risk delaying the board certification of their specialties.

At a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said that junior doctors should end their walkouts before they exceed three months if they wish to qualify for a board-certified qualification exam next year. Junior doctors who pass the exam can practice medicine in their fields of expertise.

The junior doctors’ walkout reached the three-month mark on Monday. Over 11,000 junior doctors have staged walkouts since Feb. 20 or afterward.

On the same day, Cho left room to adjust the training period for cases in which junior doctors explained to hospitals “unavoidable or inevitable” reasons for their absence upon their return. The authorities can deduct a month from training requirements for cases of sick leave.

However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare clarified that voluntary strikes don't qualify for such exceptions.

Junior doctors who are absent during their regular training but wish to earn specialty licenses must undergo extra training between March 1 and May 31 of their exam year.

Junior doctors with absences longer than three months cannot complete their additional complementary training between March and May of next year. Thus, the Health Ministry says those who fail to return by Monday will be disqualified from the test.

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

The minister also called for a dialogue with doctors, adding that they should not attach “unrealistic preconditions which do not correspond to the public's perspective,” such as a total scrapping of the medical recruitment expansion policy.

The government is “ready for dialogue” with “no limits on formalities and agenda,” Cho said.

A vacant lecture hall in a medical school's building in Gyeonggi on Friday. [NEWS1]

Backed by an appellate court ruling last week, the Education Ministry is speeding up its effort to finalize the admissions quota increase in medical schools.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said universities should revise their academic code as a “compulsory duty” that must precede the enrollment quota changes, citing an enforcement decree under the Higher Education Act.

Lee said the universities should uphold the judiciary’s decision, which “acknowledged the necessity of expanding medical recruitment and medical reform in the aspects of public welfare.”

As of last Friday, 15 of 32 medical schools which were allocated an expanded admissions quota had finalized the code amendment.

Yet, some universities faced setbacks, as several voted down a motion to revise their academic codes. The Pusan National University, Kangwon National University and Jeju National University have rejected amending or abstained from revising their codes.

The nation’s education authority managing college education — the Korean Council for University Education — is set to review the details of medical school admission plans on Friday, the Ministry of Education said Monday.

The results of the review will be made public on May 30.

The ministry said it was "highly unlikely" that changes in specific admission numbers would be permitted after May 31, the day when the numbers are announced by the Education Ministry.

The country expects approximately 1,500 seats to be added in upcoming admissions as the government granted partial autonomy to medical schools subject to the quota hike to decide their enrollment increases.

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