About 12,000 trainee doctors have left their worksites since Feb. 20 in protest of the plan to boost the number of medical students by 2,000, causing delays in medical treatments, with some emergency rooms partially limiting their treatment of critically ill patients.

Lim Hyun-taek, the president-elect of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), pressed the government to fully scrap its proposed medical reform plans, including the medical school quota hike, to open a discussion with doctors from scratch.

“This is not a conflict between the medical community and the government. Rather, it is a unilateral abuse of power by the authorities,” Lim said in a general meeting of the KMA in Seoul. “Otherwise, the medical community will not budge, and not respond to any call for negotiations.”

A presidential committee on medical reform was formally launched on Thursday to seek a breakthrough over a prolonged walkout by doctors, but the KMA has been boycotting the initiative as well.

Lim, known for his hawkish stance in the ongoing stalemate with the government, is set to begin his official term starting on Wednesday.

Last week, the police conducted an additional raid on Lim, who is accused of having instigated collective resignations by junior doctors

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it additionally seized Lim’s mobile phone and sent investigators to his office in western Seoul and his residence in Asan, 83 kilometers south of Seoul.

The police seized Lim’s phone in their previous raid in March, but it was confirmed to have been used by him in the past. (Yonhap)

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In response, medical school professors, who hold the highest rank among medical professionals, are set to tender their resignations en masse, beginning Monday, in solidarity with the trainee doctors.

The conflict began after the government announced a decision on Feb. 6 to add 2,000 more slots to enrollment quotas at medical schools, starting next year, to address the shortage of physicians. The current admissions quotas of the 40 medical schools in Korea are set at a total of 3,058.

In protest, more than 90 percent of the nation’s 13,000 trainee doctors have been on strike — in the form of mass resignations — saying that the quota expansion policy will compromise the quality of medical education and training.

With both sides showing little signs of backing off, the health care standoff, which has already caused substantial disruptions for patients, such as the postponement and rescheduling of surgeries and other procedures, is feared to worsen.

Expressing their objection to the government’s policy and calling for its withdrawal, professors of medical schools nationwide will begin submitting their resignations on Monday, and will reduce their work hours to 52 hours a week — set as the official workweek by law — by adjusting the schedules of surgeries and other treatments, according to the Medical Professors Association of Korea, which represents professors from 39 medical schools.

Starting April 1, these professors will also “minimize” their consultation hours for outpatients and focus on patients in critical or emergency situations.

Despite looming resignations by medical professors, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is sticking to its stance, saying it will respond to the collective actions of doctors, which it says are illegal, in accordance with the relevant laws and guidelines. The ministry stressed that the plan to increase the number of medical students by 2,000 is not negotiable.

It has already initiated the necessary administrative steps to suspend the licenses of striking doctors who defied its return-to-work order. The suspension of the licenses for up to three months is expected to begin as of Tuesday for some.

According to the ministry, those who receive a three-month suspension of their license will be unable to fulfill the training period requirements, and consequently, this delay will postpone their qualification as medical specialists by more than a year.

The presidential office urged trainee doctors to return to their respective hospitals before the procedure to suspend their licenses is completed, apparently mindful of concerns that doctors’ protests are expected to intensify further if the suspension is actually implemented.

“We can take administrative and legal action against the striking trainee doctors as there are laws and principles. But, if possible, the government wishes not to take such steps,” Sung Tae-yoon, director of national policy at the presidential office, said during his recent appearance on a KBS TV program.

In preparation for the prolonged medical services vacuum, the government will deploy an additional 200 military and public health doctors to hospitals that are affected by the nationwide walkout, Monday. With them, the number of such doctors mobilized by the government will increase to 413.

Military doctors are commissioned officers, while public health doctors are conscripts for the supplementary service — a category of mandatory military service in Korea — that requires them to work in underserved areas for three years.

The government has also temporarily allowed senior doctors who operate local clinics to work at the affected hospitals upon request.

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In a similar move, medical students agreed to take a leave of absence en masse.

Intensified protests by young doctors raise concerns that patients may find themselves unable to receive adequate and timely medical services. But the government continued to take an unmovable stance, saying there will be no leniency for those engaging in collective actions.

Tensions between doctors and the government have escalated, with both sides showing no sign of backing down, over the health ministry’s Feb. 6 announcement that the annual enrollment quota at 40 medical schools nationwide will increase next year to 5,058 from the current 3,058.

According to the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), an association of interns and resident doctors, trainee doctors at the so-called “big five” hospitals in Seoul — Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul Asan Medical Center, Samsung Medical Center, Severance Hospital and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital — decided to submit their letters of resignation en masse on Monday and stop working at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

The strike threat by interns and resident doctors is considered serious, as they play a key role in emergency rooms and intensive care units at large hospitals.

When the previous Moon Jae-in government was pushing to raise the medical school enrollment quota in 2020, collective action by trainee doctors caused substantial inconveniences for patients, especially at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This eventually led the Moon government to retract its proposal.

The latest decision made by trainee doctors at the big five hospitals raised the possibility of those at other hospitals joining in.

At Wonkwang University Hospital, all 126 of its trainee doctors had already submitted their letters of resignation en masse, expressing their intention to work until March 15 and quit.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 154 trainee doctors at seven hospitals, including the 126 at Wonkwang University Hospital, have submitted their letters of resignation as of Thursday.

None of these resignation letters have been accepted, the ministry noted.

In response to actions by junior doctors, the health ministry ordered 221 teaching hospitals across the country to put an effective ban on mass leave and ensure they maintain essential medical personnel.

The ministry said leaving hospitals is equivalent to refusing patients, and in this case, the government can issue an order for doctors to return to work, citing the Medical Service Act. Violators of this order face suspension of their licenses for up to one year or imprisonment of up to three years.

The law also stipulates that the government possesses the authority to potentially revoke doctors’ licenses should they be sentenced by a court after failing to adhere to this order.

“The government will mobilize all available legal and administrative measures against any actions that take hostage the lives of patients, to protect the safety of the public,” Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said during a media briefing.

Medical students, for their part, are also moving to join the protests by taking an en masse leave of absence. Representatives from 35 medical schools out of 40 agreed unanimously to apply for leave of absence on Tuesday.

In response, the Ministry of Education urged medical schools to monitor the situation closely.

The government has been seeking to raise the medical school enrollment quota to address shortages of doctors and improve public access to medical services.

On the other hand, doctors and medical students raised concerns that expanding the number of placements could adversely affect the quality of education and training.

In a Gallup Korea survey of 1,002 adults, released also on Friday, 76 percent of participants supported the government’s plan, while 16 percent disagreed with it, and 9 percent reserved judgment.

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