(Health Korea News / Park Won-jin) The movement to refuse to provide education to residents recruited in the second half of the year under government pressure is spreading among medical school professors. Professors at Sesrance Hospital under Yonsei University College of Medicine, including professors at Catholic University’s Department of Radiology, have also effectively declared their refusal to provide education to residents recruited in the fall of September.
On the 22nd, the Yonsei University College of Medicine Professors Emergency Response Committee indirectly announced their intention not to provide education to residents recruited in the second half of the year through the “Yonsei University College of Medicine Professors’ Statement on the Mass Resignation of Residents and the Recruitment of Residents in the Second Half of the Year.” Professors from the Yonsei University College of Medicine Emergency Response Committee and its affiliated Severance Hospital, Gangnam Severance Hospital, and Yongin Severance Hospital participated in the statement.
In a statement, the professors said, “If by any chance the government’s oppression and threats force our hospital to hire people who have no connection to Severance to fill the positions of our residents who were forced to resign, that would be nothing more than the government hiring hospital workers.” They added, “We, professors at Yonsei University College of Medicine, can welcome these people as new Severance people if they apply after the current hardship is over, but under the current circumstances, we cannot accept them as our students and colleagues who will share our proud academic tradition.”
The professors declared, “Even if the Severance residents resign, Severance will leave their positions vacant and do its utmost to support and encourage them so that they can return proudly and safely.”
This is interpreted to mean that the second half of the year residents who are recruited under government pressure will not be recognized as students or colleagues and therefore will not be educated.
The professors made it clear that the government’s plan to increase the number of medical schools was fundamentally wrong.
The professors criticized, saying, “It was very clear that the ‘Medical School Enrollment Increase and Essential Medical Care Package’ announced by the government last February would be a disaster for anyone with even the slightest interest in healthcare,” and “The young medical professionals in this country who will shoulder the burden of essential medical care had no choice but to resign in frustration and despair, and (the residents) presented a normalization plan summarizing the minimum conditions for reviving essential medical care in seven points, but the government, rather than responding to their legitimate demands, ordered hospitals to prohibit accepting their resignations and distorted their actions through the media.”
He urged, “The government should stop using tricks and empty rhetoric and instead restore trust by making a responsible and courageous choice to turn everything around for the sake of the people’s health and our country’s healthcare, and in that atmosphere, engage in direct dialogue with residents and students to bring them back.”
Earlier, on the 20th, professors from the Department of Radiology at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine announced in a statement, “We will not serve as supervising physicians for residents who join the hospital in the second half of the year and will refuse to provide education or guidance.”
They criticized, “The government is forcing the September recruitment of residents by using the quota of medical institutions as bait. The Catholic Medical Center is also trying to force the September recruitment of residents, ignoring the wishes of the residents who are the subjects of training and the professors in charge of education,” and explained, “We are announcing this intention in advance to prevent innocent victims from applying for the second half of the residency based on incorrect information.”
They warned, “All professors in the Department of Radiology at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine have strongly expressed their will not to replace the residents who are fighting against this wrong policy with other residents, and have conveyed to the medical center that they have no intention of conducting the September residency recruitment,” and “If we forcefully recruit residents, normal training for residents will be impossible.”
Catholic Medical Center, which has eight training hospitals under its wing, including Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, recently dismissed 881 of its 960 residents and applied to the government to recruit 1,019 new residents.
Among the 151 training hospitals nationwide that hired residents, 7,648 residents, or 52.6% of the total 14,531 residents, have submitted their resignation results. The training hospitals have applied to the government to recruit 7,707 residents, which is more than the number of residents who have resigned, for the fall semester in September.
Regarding this, a professor at a medical school said in a phone call with Health Korea News on the 22nd, “Since the medical crisis was caused by the government, they should no longer give up the vain hope that residents will return, and they should admit to their wrong policy and apologize,” and “Right now, it is not a situation where we can provide normal education. Judging from the mood of the professors, the movement to refuse to provide education to residents will spread even further.”
In fact, regarding the recruitment of residents in the second half of the year, the boycott movement of medical school professors is detected in many universities and many subjects. In particular, the movement of professors in essential medical subjects such as emergency medicine to refuse to provide residency education is more intense. Therefore, the prevailing view within the medical community is that the government’s policy of coercively increasing medical school enrollment will only bring about a collapse of the medical system and will ultimately fail.
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Source: www.hkn24.com
