Anchor: Medical professors at four hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University(SNU) have indefinitely suspended from Monday patient treatment and surgeries, excluding the treatment of serious and emergency patients. Concerns are rising that the current medical vacuum will worsen as more medical institutes, including other university hospitals and private practices, are set to join the Korean Medical Association in collectively suspending patient treatment on Tuesday.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
Report: Medical professors at Seoul National University(SNU) Hospital, SNU Bundang Hospital, Seoul Metropolitan Government SNU Boramae Medical Center and SNU Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Center began an indefinite walkout on Monday.
An emergency committee of the four hospitals’ medical professors urged the government on Sunday to scrap the administrative measures imposed on trainee doctors who have taken collective action in protest of the government’s decision to hike admissions at medical schools.
Roughly 520, or some 55 percent of medical professors at the four hospitals, are estimated to have stopped offering outpatient services.
The committee assessed that treatment at the four institutes will decrease by around 40 percent and the surgery room operation rate will slip from 63 percent to the 30 percent range.
The Korea Alliance of Patients Organization, meanwhile, called on the doctors to scrap the suspension of services.
Concerns that the current medical vacuum will worsen are growing as members of the Korean Medical Association(KMA) are set to shut down their clinics on Tuesday.
The KMA, mostly representing doctors in private practice, unveiled a set of demands for the government on Sunday, saying it would reconsider Tuesday’s planned suspension if the government agrees to reconsider the admissions quota hike. They also demanded the government revise a policy package on essential medicine and retract all administrative orders against trainee doctors and medical students.
The government refused the association’s calls, saying it is inappropriate to make policy demands with an illegal suspension of medical services as a precondition.
The government added that it could consider seeking claims for damages for losses suffered by hospitals due to the collective suspension of medical services.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.