More medical professors postpone strike as KMA walks back walkout threat

Medical professors at the Catholic University of Korea on Tuesday decided to postpone their planned indefinite strike, following a decision by the faculty at Seoul National University's medical school to end their strike last Friday.

A doctor places his hand on a shoulder of his colleague in a general hospital in Daegu on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Medical professors at the Catholic University of Korea on Tuesday decided to postpone their planned indefinite strike, following a decision by the faculty at Seoul National University's medical school to end their strike last Friday.

The Catholic University of Korea oversees eight hospitals nationwide, including Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, one of the country's five largest tertiary medical centers.

In a survey, around 70 percent of the medical professors at the Catholic University of Korea said they should downsize services for patients with lighter symptoms rather than going on a strike.

The professorial committee said it “will continuously resist the government's misleading [health] policies in various forms.”

On Monday, the nation’s largest doctors’ group, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), said community doctors would not go on a nationwide strike slated to start Thursday.

According to a press release by the KMA, the committee representing medical professors, private practitioners and junior doctors will decide how to continue their resistance against the government during its meeting on Saturday.

The decision comes a week after its leader, Lim Hyun-taek, was criticized by the medical community for announcing the strike during a rally on June 18 without consulting with members beforehand.

The KMA also wrote that doctors of all fields will “join the strike after finishing preparations at their end” while expressing its “respect and support” to medical professors at Yonsei University’s hospitals who will stop working by Thursday.

The association’s comments appear to refute government allegations that the KMA coerced its members to close their medical clinics.

A patient reads handwritten messages to doctors asking them to continue practicing medicine in hospitals rather than going on strike in a general hospital in Daegu on Monday. [YONHAP]

On Tuesday, the government asked training hospitals to process resignations submitted by striking junior doctors through the end of June to “normalize medical services.”

Upon approving the resignations, hospitals can fill the staffing vacuum by opening up slots previously occupied by junior doctors who left the hospitals to hire doctors with general medical licenses.

Although the government permitted junior doctors to leave their hospitals, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong asked hospital administrators to “persuade them to return to their posts” during a meeting at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.

Cho added that the government feels “heavy responsibility for failing to foster an adequate environment for junior doctors," referring to their grievances regarding work conditions and pay.

The minister said the doctors' discontinuation of their training represented a personal and national loss. He also promised that the government would “improve the training environment” to allow junior doctors to receive “quality education.”

Patients in need of specialized care at larger hospitals were the most impacted by the junior doctors’ walkout, according to the office of Rep. Kim Sun-min of the National Assembly’s health committee on Tuesday.

Of the 813 damage reports lodged to the Ministry of Health and Welfare between February and last Friday, 82.2 percent or 668 cases, were from patients who suffered difficulties or damages in receiving treatments at tertiary or quaternary hospitals.

The remaining 145 reports are from patients who sought treatment or diagnosis at secondary hospitals or primary clinics.

Surgery delays topped the list with 476 reported cases. Difficulties in arranging appointments and treatment followed with 179 cases. Some 120 cases were related to treatment rejection, and the remaining 38 were hospitalization delays.

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