How to turn away from the Hippocratic oath

Doctors must deliberate on what can be a wiser and more responsible action before they resort to a collective means.

Falling ill on June 18 can become a serious matter, as doctors vowed a collective walkout that day to protest the government’s plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota next year. Korean Medical Association (KMA) Chairman Lim Hyun-taek said the mass rally will be the “starting point” to save Korean medicine. But few citizens would agree.

Universities already implemented the increase in their admissions quota for next year. There cannot be any changes, as it could confuse students sitting for the college entrance exam in November for next year’s enrollment. The government already set up a medical reform task force, but doctors have not presented any alternatives, and merely repeat the same demand for a complete withdrawal of the quota increase. We wonder why they are forsaking their patients for a protest rally.

Seoul National University Medical School professors will be taking a collective leave of absence from June 17, except for primary divisions. The government already announced it was withdrawing all administrative penalties against trainee doctors. But doctors want the government to cancel — not suspend — the administrative actions. They are in fact bossing the government around until their demands are met. They could not have acted this way if they really cared for the health of their patients.

The medical professors’ association at SNU advised peer doctors to reconsider the collective leave that might harm patients, as reform must have the “support of the society” and the government. Is a strike that is losing sympathy from the general public as well as their peers that worthwhile?

KMA Chair Lim’s behaviors are becoming more unruly. In the latest rant on his Facebook page, he publicly called the name of the judge who delivered a guilty ruling on a doctor for professional negligence and called her “crazy.” Lim instructed doctors to treat judges and their families based on the rules of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service instead of a doctors’ conscience.

We can only wonder if he is really a doctor who had taken the Hippocratic oath. What’s bewildering is that we hear no call for restraint and criticism against such senseless behaviors from the doctors’ community. We cannot know if they all feel the same as Lim or do not care to meddle for their own interests.

People are turning colder toward medical doctors because of their abnormalities. At the current pace, medical reforms, including the medical school quota increase, may be implemented without the endorsement from the medical community.

Doctors must deliberate on what can be a wiser and more responsible action before they resort to a collective means.