Junior doctors, medical students grow skeptical over fruitless strike

Internal divisions appear to have emerged among junior doctors as their 10-month protest has resulted in little but mounting concern more than their careers.

A medical professional walks in front of an emergency room in a general hospital in Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Internal divisions appear to have emerged among junior doctors as their 10-month protest has resulted in little but mounting concern more than their careers.

Since February, junior doctors have stuck to a “tang-ping” strategy, a Chinese term that means lying flat and doing nothing, to protest the government’s health reform plans, including expanding admissions quotas at medical schools.

A junior doctor who resigned from a general hospital in Seoul said Wednesday that his striking colleagues had suggested few alternatives more than the last nine months other than insisting on scrapping the 2,000-seat admission increase.

"Until September, I agreed entirely with the direction of the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), which rejects a return to hospitals," he said. "However, after that, I began to think nothing would change if we continued like this."

He worried that if the ultimate goal of the protest was simply to "lay around," junior doctors would receive little public support, and their actions would lose justification.

On Nov. 4, Park Dan, head of KIRA, wrote that he was “confident that medical students would not return to their classrooms next year.” He added that he would not return to his hospital while leaving colleagues behind — a statement of seeming defiance, that junior doctors were also prepared to stay home next year.

Two people in white medical gown are seen in front of a medical college building in Seoul in last month. [YONHAP]

However, under the surface, some junior doctors are skeptical about extending the protest for another year.

“Although modifying the enrollment quota for the upcoming year is impossible with the national college entrance exam taking place next week, KIRA still demands the nullification of the admission hike for the 2025 academic year,” another junior doctor who resigned from a general hospital in Seoul said.

"There is growing skepticism more than how things will turn out if we simply let time pass next year, too, and more than whether simply saying we'll continue the struggle for another year while KIRA refuses to share its plans is the right thing to do," he said.

“Park Dan promotes his message as if the majority of junior doctors agreed it without collecting opinions from junior doctors,” one of the junior doctors who resigned from a Seoul-based general hospital said, adding that “peer pressure” is preventing those who want to reclaim their posts from returning.

The doctor said KIRA “blocked all communication channels through which junior doctors could deliver their opinions about other health care agendas," such as the work scope of physician assistants and the legalization of telemedicine services.

Another junior doctor who formerly worked at a general hospital in the greater Seoul area criticized Park’s latest remarks targeting Im Hyun-taek, head of the Korean Medical Association, instead of the government.

A medical gown is placed on a desk inside a lecture hall of medical school's building in Daegu in last month. [YONHAP]

“There are a considerable number of junior doctors who are inclined to return since they've seen no silver lining for a long time,” he said, adding that junior doctors could form another organization to represent themselves.

Medical students seem uncertain about future protests because they face expulsion if they do not return to campus next year. According to the academic code of each university, students – regardless of their majors – could be expelled if they take a leave of absence for longer than three or four consecutive semesters.

“It seems that junior doctors are not in a rush because they already have general doctor licenses, but I'm anxious that I cannot waste another year,” a student enrolled in a medical school in Seoul said.

BY NAM SOO-HYOUN, RHEE ESTHER, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]