The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 31st that the recruitment of residents for the second half of the year will begin next month. As residents who collectively resigned in February of last year return at this time, it is expected that the conflict between medicine and politics will be resolved. The Ministry of Health and Welfare discussed these matters at the second meeting of the training consultative committee held in Jung-gu, Seoul.
The training consultative committee is a forum for discussing the improvement of the training environment for residents. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Association of Resident Doctors (KARD), the Korea Training Hospital Association, and the Korean Academy of Medicine are participating. While the government listened to the demands of the residents on this day, it did not come to a conclusion on a specific return plan. The government has decided to hold a third meeting next month.
Resident recruitment occurs twice a year, in March for the first half and in September for the second half. The government plans to start the recruitment of residents next month. Until then, it aims to reach an agreement with residents on the return plan. Typically, the recruitment for the second half is meant to fill vacancies from the first half, so the numbers haven't been high. This time, however, due to the conflict between medicine and politics, a significant number of residents who left hospitals are expected to return.
The government decided to recognize a training gap of about 10 days for residents who resigned between February 19 and 20 last year. Generally, resident training is conducted on a yearly basis. For example, if a resident works at a hospital from March to February of the following year, they will be recognized for one year of training. However, if a resident resigned around February 19 and 20, a training gap of about 10 days occurs. The government is saying it will acknowledge this.
Currently, there are 2,532 residents working in hospitals. This is only 18.7% of the 13,531 residents prior to the collective resignation. Some of the resigned residents are working in private practice as general practitioners. General practitioners have a medical license but have not undergone the resident training process and have given up on becoming specialists. They can either continue as general practitioners or return to hospitals to challenge becoming specialists again.
The residents are demanding improved working conditions in training hospitals as a condition for their return. If they enlisted in the military partway through their training, they requested to be allowed to continue training at their previous hospital or department after being discharged. They have indicated that the mandatory medical package policy, which prohibits mixed billing of essential medical services and non-essential services, needs to be reviewed again. Since non-essential services are a major revenue source for private practitioners, they argue that mixed billing should be allowed. Additionally, they requested a reduction in the burden of lawsuits in the event of unintended medical accidents.