The government on Monday ordered community doctors to continue providing medical services and to report to local governments when they close their practices on June 18, expressing “deep regret” over the doctors' planned general strike announced the day before.
“The government will respond sternly to a collective refusal to provide medical treatment, as it is a constitutional duty for us to protect the lives and health of the public,” Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang said in a press briefing.
The Korean Medical Association (KMA) announced a general strike on June 18 to protest the government’s decision to increase the medical school quota.
The KMA, the country’s largest doctors’ lobby group, represents some 140,000 doctors and more than 20,000 medical school students.
In a vote taken from last Tuesday to Friday, 90.6 percent of doctors supported a “strong protest” against the government’s decision, according to the KMA.
Seoul National University Hospital's (SNUH) medical professors also said last week they would indefinitely suspend medical services from June 17, except for emergency room patients and intensive care units.
As the doctors' strike looms, the government instructed local authorities to order medical institutions in their jurisdictions to continue working on June 18 and to report by June 13 if they still plan to participate in the strike.
According to Article 59 of the Medical Service Act, the Health Minister, mayors or governors can issue orders to medical institutions or professionals “if considered necessary for policies on public health and medical services, or if a serious hazard occurs or is likely to occur to public health.”
The government will also legally review whether the KMA has violated the Fair Trade Act by encouraging “illegal collective action.”
The planned strike follows the government's decision last month to increase medical school admissions by 1,500 spots for next year despite fierce opposition from the medical community.
It marked the first such hike in 27 years.
Since late February, thousands of junior doctors have left their worksites in protest of the government’s quota hike.
According to the Health Ministry, only 1,027 of 13,756 junior doctors, or 7.5 percent, showed up at work at 211 hospitals on Friday.
The government also announced plans on Monday to enhance the emergency-mode medical system, including offering on-call pay to junior doctors working at general hospitals starting in July.
Previously, such payments were only provided to those working at 47 tertiary general hospitals since February.
Emergency medical service (EMS) situation rooms nationwide will increase from the current four to six by July, with newly established offices in southern Gyeonggi and Busan. These situation rooms — currently found in Seoul, Daejeon, Gwangju and Daegu — operate around the clock and connect to other hospitals if emergency rooms need to transfer patients.
Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong on Monday stressed that the government is open to dialogue at any time and in any format, hoping the medical community and the government could work together to complete medical reform.
Following the announcement of planned strikes by doctors, labor unions criticized the plans and called for their withdrawal.
"Patients have become helpless, and the public is in despair in the face of the collective strike by doctors, who have absolute authority over patients' lives," the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union said in its statement on Monday, calling the planned strike as “unreasonable and unjustifiable.”
“Doctors should return to the patients and the people to develop proper measures for medical reform, not go on a collective day off.”
