Back on the domestic front.
Health authorities are lifting their administrative actions on doctors in training who remain engaged in collective action in hopes of encouraging their return to hospitals.
Lee Eun-hee has details.
It’s been five months since trainee doctors left their posts, and on Monday the government announced it will not take any administrative actions on all trainee doctors.
This includes the suspension of medical licenses, regardless of whether they choose to return to work.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare made the announcement following a meeting at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.
“After reviewing feedback from training sites and assessing the current medical field situation, the decision has been made, effective immediately, not to impose administrative penalties on trainee doctors, regardless of their return status.”
With the recruitment period set to start on September 1st, hospitals need to know how many trainee doctors will return to their posts so that they can plan how many new residents to recruit.
The government is looking to ease the return policy for those who have resigned so they can apply for the second half of the year.
The current regulations prohibit residents who resign during their training period to return to the same position within a year.
“Training hospitals should finalize resignations and confirm vacancies by July 15th for the recruitment starting on July 22nd.”
Last month, the government withdrew various penalties issued to trainee doctors to provide them with some flexibility to return to their duties.
However, as of Thursday last week, only 8-percent of the total 13-thousand trainees were at work -which is only 91 more than before the government postponed the medical license suspension.
In addition on Monday, the government promised to speed up improvements in the training environment for trainee doctors, including gradually reducing the maximum working hour limit from thirty-six hours to thirty hours.
However, the dispute over increasing the medical school quota for 2025 remains unresolved, despite the government finalizing the decision over a month ago, as trainee doctors continue to oppose it.
Lee Eun-hee, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=273027
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