Korean Medical University professors plan to resign collectively_ government refuses to make concessions on expansion plan
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Beijing, March 18: South Korea’s Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo accused medical university professors of preparing to resign collectively as coercion on the 17th, and reiterated that the government will not give in to the expansion plan of medical universities.
The South Korean government announced an expansion plan for medical universities in early February, which was strongly opposed by the medical community. Nearly 10,000 interns and residents submitted their resignations and went on strike, causing confusion in diagnosis and treatment. Medical university students also collectively applied for suspension of school in protest. The Emergency Response Committee for Professors of the National Medical College of Korea announced on the 15th that professors from 16 university medical schools will collectively resign on the 25th of this month.
On October 18, 2023, tourists visited Gwanghwamun, Seoul, South Korea. Photo by reporter Wang Yiliang
Park Min-soo said in a speech on Yonhap News Agency TV on the 17th that the government will never adjust the plan to expand enrollment by 2000 people. The collective resignation of medical university professors is a threat to the public, and collective protests in the medical community must be stopped. Professors ‘claim that if students are at a disadvantage, they will not sit idly by is a challenge to the law.
Chu Young-soo, president of the National Central Medical Hospital of South Korea, said at a press conference that the medical university professor planned to resign in protest, threatening the patient’s health and even life. It is really desperate that a medical professor with an important position in the medical world should say such a thing.
Chu Young-soo also apologized for the hospital’s doctors ‘previous statement in support of the strike, saying that the statement did not represent the position of the National Central Medical Center, and urged the striking doctors to return to work as soon as possible.
As aging intensifies, Korean society will have an increasing demand for medical resources. According to estimates by the South Korean health department, if the current enrollment scale is maintained, the shortage of doctors in South Korea will reach 150,000 by 2035.
South Korean people generally welcome the medical university’s expansion plan. The medical community expressed opposition. They believed that the government’s expansion plan would address the symptoms rather than the root cause, and would not solve the problems of shortage of medical personnel and uneven resource allocation. Moreover, blind expansion of enrollment may lead to excessive medical care, thereby increasing the financial burden on the medical insurance system, and may also reduce the quality of teaching in medical schools. Critics say some in the medical profession are actually worried that expansion will lead to a reduction in their income. (Li Yannan)
