Doctors take to streets in protest of medical school quota hike
Gov’t to initiate legal action against non-returning trainee doctors from today
Tens of thousands of doctors and medical students gathered in Seoul’s Yeouido, Sunday afternoon, in protest against the government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions quota, marking their largest rally in years.
The rally organizers claimed that the event gathered around 30,000 participants, while the police estimated it to be around 15,000.
The demonstration, organized by the Korean Medical Association (KMA), a powerful doctors’ lobby group with 140,000 members, was held amid an ongoing strike by trainee doctors that has persisted for nearly two weeks.
Participants of the rally, including doctors from regions all across the country including Daegu, Busan and Jeju Island, as well as medical students and their families, urged the government to retract its decision to add 2,000 seats for medical schools next year.
Despite the government’s repeated warnings of legal action starting today against doctors not returning to work, the doctors’ group reiterated its endorsement of the junior doctors’ mass resignation movement.
“We have gathered today to support the courageous decisions of trainee doctors who have chosen to resist the government’s oppression and shackles on medical professionals. We must stay united to prevent the hike in medical school quotas at all costs,” Kim Taek-woo, who heads the emergency committee of the KMA, said in a speech to the cheering crowd.
Protesters brandished banners reading “Stop oppression against doctors” and “Take responsibility for the deterioration of health care quality.” They chanted slogans such as “Hasty increase of medical school quota will lead to collapse of medical system.”
Prior to the rally, speculation arose that some officials from pharmaceutical firms were coerced into participating in the rally. But the doctors denied wielding such power.
“I can clearly say that neither our KMA emergency committee nor branches in other regions have made official requests to pharmaceutical firms. However, we have not been able to confirm whether some of our members have individually engaged in such actions,” Joo Soo-ho, a KMA spokesperson, told reporters.
Police have launched an investigation into the speculation as law enforcement authorities escalate pressure on the striking doctors.
“Rallies within legal boundaries will be guaranteed, but illegal activities will be dealt with firmly. Also, we will take stern legal actions regarding allegations about forced participation in protests,” Cho Ji-ho, commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, said during a press briefing held near the rally site.
Over 3,000 police officers were deployed on site to handle crowd control and traffic measures. Cho led the efforts, in a rare occurrence for the commissioner to take such responsibility, as overseeing rallies is typically managed by district police stations.
Cho also said that the police have conducted a search and seizure on the KMA headquarters in central Seoul’s Yongsan District, Friday, and requested the immigration authorities to impose travel bans on four senior officials of the doctors’ association.
“We will continue our probe in a swift manner using all possible investigative forces,” Cho added.
The government has labeled the mass resignation movement by trainee doctors as an illicit activity and pointed the finger at KMA officials for allegedly encouraging their collective action. The KMA has denied the allegation, asserting that the junior doctors’ resignation movement is based on personal decisions.
As the prolonged strike by trainee doctors continues to cause massive medical disruptions, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that the government will initiate formal procedures for criminal punishment without hesitation.
“The refusal of physicians to take care of patients under any circumstances is intolerable. The government stands firm in its principles. Should the unlawful action of abandoning patients persist, the government will fulfill its constitutional and legal obligations without hesitation,” Han said during a pan-governmental meeting responding to the doctors’ strike, also on Sunday.
According to medical laws, the government can issue return-to-work orders on doctors if there are grave risks to public health. Those refusing to comply could face the suspension of their medical licenses for up to one year and up to three years in prison, or fines of up to 30 million won ($22,400).
Over the past few days, the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued a last-minute warning, setting Thursday as the deadline for doctors to avoid legal consequences if they return to work. Some government officials visited the homes of trainee doctors who had refused to acknowledge the orders, having turned off their phones when the government sent text messages.
As of Thursday night, less than 5 percent of the trainee doctors had returned to work out of the total 13,000 interns and residents in major hospitals across the country, according to the health ministry.
Now that the deadline has passed, the health authorities are preparing for formal legal action, including criminal punishment and three-month suspensions of medical licenses.
The government has made it clear that there will be no compromise, a stance possibly influenced by the events in 2020 when the health ministry delayed its medical reform plans in the face of the doctors’ strike.
Patients across the nation remain in limbo with canceled and delayed treatments due to the prolonged walkout by trainee doctors, but the tense situation in hospitals is expected to persist, as neither the government nor doctors are showing signs of relenting from their positions.