KMA: "If Even a Single Hair of Medical School Professors Is Touched, We Will Unite and Fight"

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) strongly warned that "if even a single hair of the professors is touched," 140,000 doctors and medical students will unite and fight with all their might, in response to the Ministry of Health and Welfare stating that it is reviewing whether there has been a violation of related laws after medical school professors nationwide submitted their resignations and decided to close their clinics one day a week in protest against the government's increase in medical school admissions.

On February 20, when residents at the Big 5 hospitals stopped working at 6 a.m., residents attending the "Korean Interns and Residents Association 2024 Emergency Temporary General Assembly" held at the Korean Medical Association in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, were waiting for the meeting to begin. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The KMA Presidential Transition Committee issued a statement on the 27th saying, "We are very angry that the Ministry of Health and Welfare is treating medical school professors like criminals and intimidating them."

The Transition Committee is an organization assisting Lim Hyun-taek, the next KMA president, in taking office. The term of the hardline Lim begins on the 1st of next month.

The committee stated, "The government made an oppressive announcement, which could only be seen in a dictatorship, including excessive criticism of professors, demands to prohibit resignations, and consideration of one-year imprisonment for resignations of professors at national and public universities," adding, "This infringes on the constitutional freedom to choose one's occupation, and it is a shameless act of shifting the government's responsibility, which caused this situation, onto the medical community."

Medical school professor groups claim that a month has passed since they submitted their resignations and that the resignations have taken effect. Additionally, each medical school professor emergency committee has demanded the cancellation of the increase in medical school admissions and announced plans for temporary or regular clinic closures, with some professors closing their clinics for one day.

In response, Jeon Byung-wang, Director of the Health and Medical Policy Office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said at a briefing the day before, "We regret this." Regarding the point that "the professors' clinic closures and other resolutions may constitute obstruction of business or other legal violations," he replied, "We are reviewing whether related laws have been violated."