Korean Government Begins to Suspend Medical Licenses of Striking Doctors
The trainee doctors are only facing a year supsension of their medical license which appears to be having little effect. According to the article of the 8,945 trainee doctors that left their worksites, only 565 have since returned to avoid the suspension:
The health ministry said Monday it started taking procedures to suspend the licenses of around 7,000 trainee doctors who have defied the government’s order to go back to work, warning that such punishment would be “irreversible.”
About 9,000 trainee doctors remained off their jobs at general hospitals for the 14th consecutive day Monday, protesting the plan to add 2,000 more medical school seats starting next year, from the current 3,058.
Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said the government has taken steps to suspend the medical licenses of trainee doctors who left their worksites.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I’m all for Yoon on this debate. Moon also tried to expand the number of doctors back in 2020 and they pulled the same stunt, forcing Moon to retreat. Let’s see if Yoon has the guts to stick with what’s right. Korea is a rapidly aging society, it desperately needs more doctors now and will need even more in the coming years. These trainee doctors complain of overwork yet they go on strike when the government is looking to relieve their workloads by hiring more doctors. These strikers are not making any sense. It’s not as if they’re underpaid or something, since they make on average, 8 times the national average salary (after their residency and training is over). They should get no mercy, the government should cancel their medical license, and then hire their replacements.
The trainee doctors are mere foot soldiers in the battle between the actual doctors and the government.
The actual doctors, the ones who’ve completed their residency and training, don’t want more doctors because it means more competition.
Let’s say for example a doctor sets up a small clinic in a neighborhood in Seoul specializing in ear, nose, and throat. A high demand care considering the number of cold cases and the ailments that come with fine dust.
He/she is the only game in that neighborhood meaning that he/she will rake in cash with all those people that come to him/her for treatment.
However, with the increase in doctors, let’s say that two or three more clinics pop up.
Then the doctor above faces competition and of course decrease in revenue.
The above is what the doctors want to avoid.
But they don’t want to get their hands dirty, so that’s why they are mobilizing the trainee doctors to take the flak.
The doctors are also the ones that control the residency and training of the trainee doctors, which means the trainee doctors have no choice but to follow orders.
I edited my comment.
Why is it showing as spam?
@TOK, I pulled your comment out of the spam filter. It may have gotten flagged by the software due to your IP address. For example if you are using an Internet cafe or public Wi-Fi spot used frequently by spammers the software will flag it and put it into the spam filter.
But they’re not the ones who want to work in rural areas where there are absolute lack of doctors and medical services. More competition will now force some of them to work in rural areas instead of just raking in the money in Seoul.
Here’s another good article that makes these points:
1) These doctors have one of the highest per capita pay in the OECD.
2) South Korea is at the bottom of the list in the OECD for number of doctors per person.
3) South Korea has the lowest number of medical students per capita in the OECD.
What argument are they basing their protests on? I don’t understand what they’re complaining about.
@Korean Man
I think you answered your own question.
@GIKorea
Thanks for pulling out my comment from spam.
Although I don’t think it’s an IP issue, because my second comment got through.
As for my original comment, it got through, but when I realized it needed editing, and tried to repost after it after editing, that’s when it got put into the spam filter.