Several major hospitals in South Korea, including Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hospital, Korea University Medical Center, and Gyeongsang National University Hospital, will partially be closed on April 30. as medical professors take a day off to protest against the government’s decision to increase the number of medical school admissions.
Professors at Severance Hospital and Korea University Medical Center will take one day off per week starting today, and professors at Asan Medical Center and Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital will halt treatments for patients once a week from May 3. Faculty at Samsung Medical Center will take one day each week individually.
The movement is spreading across the country, following steps by medical faculty from local hospitals such as Chungbuk National University Hospital and Wonkwang University Hospital, who began taking a day off every Friday. The National Emergency Response Committee of Medical School Professors, representing 20 medical schools, decided to take a weekly leave of absence on April 26. The committee expects more hospitals to join this initiative.
The professors who have decided to take weekly breaks will not conduct outpatient treatments or non-emergency surgeries, focusing only on severe emergency cases and hospitalized patients on their days off. While they cite “inevitable rest due to accumulated fatigue” as their reason for taking a day off, this action is also interpreted as a protest against the government’s refusal to reconsider the medical school admissions quota expansion.
“Reconsidering [medical school quota expansion plans] from scratch is a condition the government cannot accept,” said Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo on April 29. He urged the medical community to engage in dialogue before imposing conditions. He also mentioned that the government is considering deploying additional military doctors and public health officers in response to resignations and leaves taken by medical professors, assuring that there will not be a major medical disruption.
But patients are growing increasingly anxious. The guardian of a 60-year-old esophageal cancer patient who was scheduled to receive treatment at Severance Hospital said, “I was notified of the professor taking a day off via text message a few days ago, and it’s stressful because I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait.”
The medical community acknowledges that if surgery is performed within a month and a half after a cancer diagnosis, it generally does not affect survival rates. But delays longer than two months could reduce survival rates.
“Severely ill patients at top-tier general hospitals are experiencing over six months of delays for appointments, and those at secondary hospitals now wait over two months for appointments, causing significant distress among patients,” said Kim Sung-Joo, president of the Korean Federation of Severe Disease Patients.
