Patients’ anxieties grow as medical professors submit resignations en masse

Patients and families voiced growing anxieties that the already serious disruptions in hospital operations could worsen further as medical professors nationwide began submitting resignations en masse on Monday in support of a mass walkout by trainee doctors.

Earlier in the day, professors at three general hospitals affiliated with Korea University’s medical school submitted their resignations, marking one of the first instances of medical professors taking collective action to protest the government’s decision to add 2,000 more medical school admission seats.

At Chosun University in the southern city of Gwangju, medical professors also began submitting resignations, and nationwide, more medical professors are expected to follow suit, moving forward with their threat to launch collective action beginning on Monday.

Medical professors are expected to continue their duties at general hospitals as long as their resignations are not accepted, but some have warned that they would shorten their working hours to 52 hours a week as part of the protest.

While no signs of a breakthrough in the standoff are in sight, the expanding collective action by medical professors is feared to further cripple nationwide health care services, which have already been jolted by the monthlong walkout by trainee doctors.

Patients and their caregivers voice frustration and fears about a further blow to the ongoing paralysis of hospital operations after the monthlong walkout led to mass delays and cancellations in surgeries and emergency treatments nationwide.

A 39-year-old mother who gave birth in the southern city of Daegu earlier this month has recently been told by a health center to have her newborn seen by a doctor at a general hospital for accurate diagnosis.

“I was told to have my baby brought to a general hospital, but I am very anxious about the baby missing the appropriate timing for its surgery due to a lack of trainee doctors and professors,” she said.

She was planning to visit Kyungpook National University Hospital after hearing a news story saying that medical professors at another university hospital in her city, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, were going to submit resignations on Monday.

Another bladder infection patient complained online that no general hospitals near her city of Namwon, 240 kilometers south of Seoul, were available for reservation due to the absence of trainee doctors.

“I have been struggling with bladder infection for three years, and I was recently told by a neighborhood clinic to go see a doctor at a general hospital for continuing microhematuria,” the patient said on an online community for bladder infection.

Both of her attempts to reserve a meeting with doctors at the nearby Chonnam National University Hospital and Jeonbuk National University Hospital were in vain. “I am at a loss,” she said.

An official at a general hospital in Gwangju said that, for now, medical professors at the hospital are not likely to refuse emergency surgeries even if they reduce working hours after submitting resignations.

The health ministry has said it is reaching out to the doctors’ community to facilitate dialogue to resolve the situation, a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday called for flexibility in the government’s moves to suspend the medical licenses of striking trainee doctors.

The Medical Professors Association of Korea remains adamant that it would be willing to discuss all pending issues with the government only if it withdraws the addition of 2,000 more medical school admission seats, which were already allocated to universities last week.