Junior doctors unresponsive as hospitals process resignations

A medical worker walks down the hallway of a hospital in Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)

Some 10,000 junior doctors who left hospitals five months ago in protest of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's decision to expand the medical school quota, remained unresponsive on Monday even though hospitals they worked for started to process their resignations under the government's instruction.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said last month that it would allow hospitals to process resignations while withdrawing return-to-work orders by setting the deadline for returning to hospitals to July 15.

The measures offered to appease the protesting doctors have not shown much effect. Observers say the doctors are likely to continue their protests to pressure the government to backtrack from its medical school expansion plan.

The junior doctors still have room to consider, as the government promised to restore their training status if they find new jobs at the other hospitals by September and allow them to continue without any penalties.

A total of 1,111 out of 13,756 junior doctors, or 8.1 percent of the total, were working at 211 training hospitals as of Friday, according to the latest data provided by the Health Ministry.

According to reports, hospitals plan to process the resignations of interns and those in their first year of residency with a legal date of effect of Feb. 29. For junior doctors beyond their first year of residency it will be June 4.

Some junior doctors are concerned that they will face disadvantages if their official resignation date is later than February, as the intervening time could be treated as an unauthorized absence.

"The ultimatum for our hospital was Monday at noon, and the team in charge of accepting returnees and resignations haven't disclosed the exact figure to the entire hospital. But the number of junior doctors making their way back or even responding to the hospital's move of accepting their resignations is low," an official at a hospital in Seoul told The Korea Herald.

A junior doctor who was specializing in an essential medical field told The Korea Herald that he would consider returning if improvements were made in junior doctors' training environment, reflecting the voices of his peers demanding better working conditions, such as a reduction in continuous working hours.

According to observers, the returnees are presumed to be mostly in their third or fourth year of residency training to qualify for next year's fellowship exam and become specialists. They also believe those in training for competitive medical specialties, such as dermatology, will head back because they will have to reapply for the position if they resign.

Amid the government's hopes to discuss ways to seek medical reform with junior doctors upon their return, medical professors were skeptical about the likelihood of junior doctors returning.

Han Sae-won, a medical professor specializing in colorectal cancer at Seoul National University Hospital, said nearly 95 percent of trainee doctors at SNUH are not willing to return, expressing concerns that it could cloud the future of the country's health care.

The Medical Professors Association of Korea, the emergency committee of professors at 20 medical schools and a group of medical professors from 40 medical schools and training hospitals also said in a joint statement issued Monday that automatically accepting the resignations of junior doctors without receiving responses from individual trainee doctors on their intention to return or quit will only worsen the situation.

Meanwhile, patient groups and senior doctors later in the day urged junior doctors to return to hospitals.

"Junior doctors should immediately halt fighting and return to the medical field for patients who have been trapped in the tunnel of death for five months," an association of patients with severe diseases said in a statement.

Hong Seung-bong, a medical professor specializing in epilepsy at Samsung Medical Center who heads the association of medical professors specializing in epilepsy treatment, noted that the public would "greatly welcome" if junior doctors and medical students yield against the government considering critically ill patients.

"The government's drastic increase in medical school admissions has contributed to the current situation. ... But people would feel a strong sense of gratitude if junior doctors and medical students agree to compromise," he said in a notice sent to reporters.

By Park Jun-hee(junheee@heraldcorp.com)