On Monday, March 25, a group of medical professors in South Korea demanded that the government withdraw a reform plan that increased medical school admission seats, stating they would only hold talks with the administration if the plan was scrapped.
The Medical Professors Association of Korea's demand is expected to impede the government's attempt to undertake negotiations with the medical community following a prolonged walkout by junior doctors who abandoned their workplaces in protest of the proposal, reports South Korean News Agency Yonhap.
The association said, “Unless the government scraps the plan to increase the number of medical school freshmen and withdraws the allocation of seats, the ongoing crisis cannot be settled.”
It added that it is willing to have all overdue discussions with the government in public if it is willing to withdraw the plan.
Prospects of discussions between the government and the medical community over the junior doctors' strike increased on Sunday, March 24, when President Yoon Suk Yeol urged for a "flexible" response to the government's decision to suspend the licences of recalcitrant trainee doctors.
Why are they on strike?
Since February 20, more than 90 per cent of the country's 13,000 trainee doctors have gone on strike through mass resignations to protest the government's plan to boost the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 seats.
The health ministry had warned that trainee doctors who violated its order to return to work would have their licences suspended beginning this week.
However, given that the government gave universities the extra 2,000 admission slots last week as a sign that it would not budge from its strategy, it is unclear whether further negotiations with the medical community could result in concrete outcomes.
The association's Director, Kim Chang-soo, told reporters that adding 2,000 more admittance seats would be "unacceptable" because it would lower the standard of education at medical schools.
"The issue of the medical school admissions quota is not worth discussing," Kim told reporters.
Medical professors vowed to stay on the job but began submitting their resignations on Monday, March 25, in support of the junior physicians' protest.
According to the association, medical professors will continue with their intention to modify operations and other medical treatments in order to cut down on their weekly work hours to 52 hours.
