Draft:2024 Korean Medical Crisis

• Comment: No sources whatsoever. WikiDan61^ChatMe!_ReadMe!! 15:41, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

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2024 Korean Medical Crisis
Seoul National University Hospital, which is participating in doctors' strike
Date	2024 ~ Ongoing
Location	South Korea (Republic of Korea)
Caused by	Korean government's push to increase number of medical schools' admissions.
Methods	Strike action, Resignation, Boycotting Classes
Parties
Medical Communities Korean Medical Association Medical Interns/Residents South Korean Government Government Supporters The Association of Korean Medicine Korea Licensed Practical Nurses Association

2024 Korean Medical Crisis started with medical interns/residents leaving their post in hospitals to protest South Korean government's decision to increase number of students admitted to medical schools, causing chaos and confusion in healthcare system starting February 20th, 2024. Korean government is firm on executing the new policy and general public in South Korea is approving this decision. Meanwhile Korean Medical Association(KMA), some medical school professors, medical interns/residents and medical communities that support Korean Medical Association are strongly opposing the decision and are responding by going on strike. Both sides show no sign of backing down and this is leading to postponement of surgeries, delay in medical treatment and death of patients.

Majority of public is supporting government's decision to increase medical students admissions and is blaming doctors for causing medical crisis. There are some views that government is pushing the policy too aggressively, resulting backlash from doctors' communities, but due to arrogant and haughty responses made by few members of KMA, most of public's opinion turned against doctors. Some also criticizes doctors for seeking only privilege and financial gain, abandoning their responsibilities as doctors as stated in Hippocratic Oath and Declaration of Geneva. Government and Media also criticized doctors' actions by comparing to similar cases in Germany and Japan, claiming "Doctors reacting in collective action is unprecedented." However, there is also an opinion that with 2024 presidential election approaching, Yoon Suk Yeol Administration is using doctors politically to overturn decreasing approval rate after news about Korea's First Lady's 'Dior Bag Scandal' broke out.

Background

To become medical specialists in South Korea, medical students need to go through 1 year of internship and 4 years of residency after graduation. Medical schools' admission numbers has been kept to 3058 students since 2006. Korean government tried to increase number of admissions previously but failed due to backlash from doctors. South Korean government, predicting shortage of doctors in 2035 and increase in demand for medical workers due to aging of general population, announced policy to increase medical schools' admissions by 2000 starting February 2024. Doctors' community opposed this plan arguing there is no shortage in doctors.

Doctors are claiming South Korean medical policies are lacking transparency, reactivity, economic viability, selectivity, quality and responsibility. They are also claiming South Korean media is promoting conflict between doctors and the public.

Statements

Statements made by doctors vs. Korean government are as follows.

Doctors' Statements	Government's Statements
Increasing medical students by 2000 is excessive.	With passing of policy to divide prescribing and dispensing rights, it will not be excessive. General population is aging rapidly, increasing demand for healthcare, and number of young doctors are decreasing.
The quality of medical education will decrease.	After investigating medical schools' capacity, government has decided schools can handle more students. Ministry of Health and Welfare will collaborate with Ministry of Education to secure the quality of education.
It will promote even more competition for medical schools.	The income for doctors and other careers will balance out in long term, which will alleviate such competition.
There is no evidence to support doctors' shortage compared to other countries.	According to data from 2021, the number of doctors' ratio per 1000 Korean inhabitants is 2.1, which is lower than OECD's average(3.7). The data that KMA's referring to is not reliable enough.
Increasing number of doctors will bankrupt National Healthcare Insurance's finance.	There is no correlation between number of doctors and healthcare cost. Shortage of doctors is the major cause of rising healthcare cost. If medical treatments are done in time, there will be no need for major surgery, which in turn will reduce healthcare cost.
It will cause more competition between doctors, promoting overdiagnosis and increase medical cost.	This has not been proven.
It will promote overtreatment.	Government will regulate overtreatment practices more strictly.
Due to decreased birth rate, the overall population and the need for doctors will decrease.	According to study done by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, aging society will increase demand for healthcare. We will need more doctors due to the demand for more healthcare and reduction of doctors' work hours.

Medical Crisis

Medical Interns/Residents on Strike

Yoon Suk Yeol administration announced they will increase number of medical schools' admissions by 2000 starting 2025.The doctors are opposing this decision claiming there are enough number of doctors. Despite of opposition, the current administration is firm on executing the plan. To protest this decision, doctors started labor strike starting February 20th, 2024 and many medical students boycotted classes and declared leave of absence. On February 26th, Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that 10.034 medical interns/residents from 100 training hospitals handed in resignation letters and of these, 9,006 are retiring. The Ministry of Health and Welfare cancelled 2 of doctors who are the heads of Korean Medical Association and ordered 6228 of medical interns to return to work. The government stated that those who return to work by February 29th will not be penalized.

Government's Response

Government is utilizing national medical institutes and military hospitals to maximum capacity. They will allow use of telehealth if needed starting from February 23th to until doctors' strike is over. Doctors are minimizing number of surgical procedures and is prioritizing treating the critically ill. Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters had meeting for doctors' collective action decided National Police Agency will investigate any damages from treatment refusal, postponed surgery or treatment delay and will penalize anyone in charge of medical institutions where any of these damages occurred due to negligence.

Statistics

Number of Medical Interns/Residents and Overall %

Date	Source Hospitals	Resigned	Walkout/MIA	Note
02/16	12 Training Hospitals	235	103
02/19, 10 PM	10 Training Hospitals	1,091	757
02/20, 10 PM	100 Training Hospitals	8,816 (71.2%)	7,813 (63.1%)
02/21, 10 PM	100 Training Hospitals	9,275 (74,4%)	8,024 (64.4%)
02/22, 10 PM	94 Training Hospitals	8,897 (78.5%)	7,863 (69.4%)	Excluded 6 hospitals due to poor data quality
02/23, 7 PM	100 Training Hospitals	10,034 (80.5%)	9,006 (72.3%)

Damages

As medical interns/residents were the major workforce in emergency and on-call medical system, the damage to patient population is increasing.

• On February 21st, in Yangyang County from Gangwon Province, a patient with leg necrosis tried to get treated in GangNeung Asan Hospital, but due to absence of medical interns/residents, was not able to get treated and had to search for 3.5 hours and got finally treated at Wonju city.
• In Daejeon, a patient was refused for treatment in 8 hospitals. Another patient in rehab was suffering bedsore due to paralysis and was transported as emergency to a university hospital, but was refused. In Ganjin County from Jeolla Province, there was a patient in critical condition who was vomiting blood, but did not receive proper treatment in time, worsening the symptoms. This patient was transported for 1.5 hours to Gwangju Chosun University Hospital Emergency room. Currently major hospitals in Gwangju Province are only receiving emergency patient but the waiting line is too long. Surgeries has been cancelled or postponed and even making appointments is not possible.
• On February 22th, a story was posted on a college community describing how doctors' strike delayed the writer's grandmother's dialysis schedule, resulting in her death.

See Also

• 2020 South Korean Medical Strike

References

Category:Yoon Suk Yeol government Category:March 2024 events Category:February 2024 events Category:Healthcare in South Korea Category:2024 in South Korea