"Residents Who Left Since February 19 Must Return By This Day"
The government criticized claims from some in the medical community that the deadline for returning residents who left is until August as "an unreasonable legal interpretation," urging them to return by today (the 20th).
Park Min-su, the 2nd Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, said at the regular briefing of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters regarding the doctors' collective action, "Residents must return immediately to obtain their specialist qualifications next year," adding, "Although there are individual differences, residents must return within three months after leaving their workplace, and if there are unavoidable reasons such as vacation or leave of absence, they should explain with relevant documents to the training hospital."
He explained that residents who left since February 19 must return by today, which marks three months.
Vice Minister Park pointed out, "Some in the medical community claim that when calculating the additional training period, one month should be deducted from the period of absence from the workplace, holidays should be excluded when calculating the required training period, and holidays should be included when recognizing the training period, thus arguing that the return deadline is until August. However, this is not a reasonable legal interpretation."
He mentioned, "According to the 'Regulations on Training and Qualification Recognition for Specialists' and its enforcement rules, residents must undergo training from March to the following February, and the basic principle is that any untrained period must be made up with additional training. The additional training starts from March 1 of the following year and must be completed by May 31 to obtain specialist qualifications for the next year."
He added, "While unavoidable reasons such as vacation or leave of absence allow for excluding one month from the additional training period, absence from the workplace due to residents' collective action cannot be considered an unavoidable reason, so one month cannot be excluded. If the untrained period due to collective action exceeds three months, additional training cannot be completed by May 31 next year, delaying the timing of obtaining specialist qualifications."
He concluded, "We ask all residents to return to the field and complete their training to avoid any disadvantages to their individual career paths."
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