On the 18th, the presidential office indicated a principle-based response to medical school professors who are going through a mass resignation.
Presidential Social Secretary Jang Sang Yoon made an appearance on CBS Radio‘s Kim Hyun Jung’s News Show this morning and said in response to a question about the mass resignation of medical school professors, “If they leave the clinical field, we have no choice but to respond according to the law and principles.”
Jang said, “Medical school professors have two statuses, as university professors and doctors,” and that “from a doctor’s perspective, collective action is a violation of the medical law.”
Jang stated, “The announcement and decision to resign itself is tantamount to abandoning the lives and health of the people,” adding, “The government considers it to be a serious and worrisome action.”
Furthermore, he said, “In 2000, during the separation of prescribing and dispensing, and in 2020, during the increase in medical school admissions, there was always a pattern of collective action being strengthened and continued by specialists, full-time doctors, and professors,” and “It’s inevitable to think that this cycle should be cut off to stop the threat on people.”
Jang also refuted the constitutional criticism surrounding the work resumption order.
Jang emphasized, “When we see specialists leaving, (individual resignation) is what they claim, but the action is collective.” He continued, “Although they said they were individual on the surface, they all left in an orderly manner, so it should be seen as actual collective action.”
The presidential office also took a different stance regarding the request for an opinion inquiry (intervention) by the Association of Specialists, which claims that the work resumption order violates the “forced labor” of the 29th Convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Jang said, “According to many labor law experts, the work resumption order targeting specialists is considered to fall under the exclusionary provision of ILO Convention No. 29, ‘when there is a situation or concern that endangers the survival or well-being of the people.'”
The presidential office further stated that there is no change in the plan to increase the number by 2000.
Jang added, “We will open a dialogue now and discuss with the medical community regardless of the topic. We will persuade them with scientific and logical reasons and current circumstances about the number.”
He continued, “However, I would like the medical community to provide evidence for the increase of 350 or 500 people as some of them claim,” and “The decision to increase the number of people is not a matter of saying that the supply of manpower is excessive at 500, so 300 should be enough.”
In response to a question about the recent increase in responses criticizing the government’s response in some opinion polls, Jang said, “Eliminating the anxiety of the people and patients and ensuring that there are no interruptions in treatment are the top priority tasks,” and “Expressing the intention to unilaterally leave (the medical field) is abandoning the duty, and we will act according to the law and principles.”