A medical school professor moves at a general hospital in Seoul on April 22, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Apr. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Medical school professors at Seoul National University (SNU) are reviewing taking a day off every week as they have been thinly stretched amid the prolonged walkout by trainee doctors, officials said Tuesday.
The emergency committee of the SNU medical professors’ council will hold a general meeting later in the day and discuss whether and how to halt surgeries and treatment for outpatients once a week, according to its officials.
The professors, who serve as senior doctors at major hospitals, have been struggling to fill the void of junior doctors, as more than 90 percent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors have walked away from their duties at general hospitals since Feb. 20 in protest of the government’s decision to increase the number of medical school seats by 2,000 starting next year.
The current quota was set at 3,058, and the government and doctors have yet to find a breakthrough.
“Remaining professors have experienced heavy workloads and have felt fatigued. So we are reviewing such an option,” a committee official said.
“SNU professors are also planning to submit resignations in accordance with their own schedule,” he added.
Starting March 25, medical professors began submitting their resignations and reducing work hours in support of the walkout.
Such moves by medical school professors have deepened concerns over further disruptions in the country’s healthcare system, as some say that the resignations are supposed to take legal effect after the elapse of one month even without approval from their employers.
The education ministry has said “not many” professors have tendered resignations, and no resignations have been accepted so far.
The government has proposed dialogue by setting up a special presidential commission on medical reform, while allowing universities to decide their quotas by a range of 50 to 100 percent of what the government assigned for next year.
But doctors have rejected the proposals, calling for the government to revisit the issue from the scratch.
(Yonhap)
