South Korean medical professors resign to support doctors in training

Medical professors across South Korea have decided to resign effective March 25 in a collective action to pressure the government to achieve a breakthrough through a prolonged strike by doctors in training. The decision was made in an online meeting held on Friday evening by medical professors from 20 universities, Yonhap reported. Despite their resignation from teaching, they made it clear that they would continue to treat patients “faithfully” in hospitals, as more than 90 percent of the country's 13,000 doctors have withdrawn from their jobs since last month in protest against the government's decision to close hospitals. Increasing registration fees in medical colleges by 2,000 places. Of the 20 universities, professors from 16 medical schools have “overwhelmingly” decided to resign while the other four are seeking opinions on joining, according to Bang Jae-seong, head of the emergency committee for medical school professors. Pang warned in a press conference, in which he added that medical professors will do everything in their power to “preserve public health.” Treat patients until the waiver process is completed. “We must tender our resignations to avoid a medical catastrophe, because we believe that an agreement can only be reached after the government backs down from the plan to increase registration places by 2,000,” Pang explained. Since the beginning of this week, medical professors have threatened to resign en masse unless the government achieves a breakthrough in the prolonged strike and before they resign. March 25 is the deadline for trainee doctors to submit their views on license suspensions, and the government has already sent previous license suspension notices to around 5,000 young doctors who have defied an order to return to work. The medical department protested against the government's plan to increase registration fees in medical colleges by 2,000 places starting next year. The government said the move aims to address the chronic shortage of doctors in rural areas and in basic but less popular medical fields. However, doctors said the fee increase would undermine the quality of medical education and other services and lead to higher medical costs for patients, and they called for measures to address underpaid specialists first and improve legal protections against excessive medical malpractice claims. The prolonged strike has raised fears among patients that they will not be able to receive timely medical treatment, and major public hospitals have seen surgeries and emergency medical treatments canceled and delayed because they rely heavily on doctors in training.