SNU Hospital professors' fatal turn

Doctors on walkout must not forget the words of one of their peers.

Professors at Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital started a walkout from Monday after 54.7 percent of them supported it. A considerable number of them participated in the strike in protest of the government’s decision to raise the admissions quota for medical schools. The professors informed patients about their delayed treatment through texts or phone calls. The professors totally ignored the rights of patients who waited for a surgery or other urgent treatments for months.

The emergency committee of the university professors said, “Treating patients suffering grave illnesses or rare diseases will continue.” But most of the patients went to the university hospital because of serious illnesses. “If stage 4 bladder cancer is not a serious illness, what is?” a patient cried.

Professors at SNU Hospital receive generous treatment from the government for their service. The subsidy for the hospital amounts to 612.9 billion won ($444 million) this year. This reflects high public expectations for their service as a top medical institution. We are dumbfounded at their collective walkout.

The cause for the strike is hard to comprehend. They know well that the increased enrollment quota for next year cannot be changed. The government already withdrew its plan to impose administrative punishments on trainee doctors who left hospitals earlier. The medical professors’ demand for the cancellation of the quota hike despite such concessions does not make sense.

Members of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), who vowed to shutter their clinics, are no different. The association’s demand for the revocation of the administrative penalties on trainee doctors is sheer nonsense, as it couldn’t even contact them. But the KMA has not yet presented any detailed alternatives except for reiterating a “restart of discussions on the enrollment quota.”

The government has ordered doctors on strike to return to their hospitals. It also plans to issue an administrative order for all hospitals to continue operations. If doctors incur financial damages on large hospitals, the government will exercise the right of indemnity against doctors on strike. If the government puts the plan into action, would doctors beg for help?

Fortunately, some doctors continue practicing medicine for their patients. An association of hospitals devoted to treating patients suffering epilepsy, for instance, declared it will not abandon patients. The chairman of the association said, “Doctors’ act of endangering the critically ill only to prevent what will happen 10 years later is the last thing to do.” Doctors on walkout must not forget the words of one of their peers.