"40 Doctors Specializing in Dementia and Schizophrenia... Providing Treatment Even During Drug Addiction Therapy"

Assemblywoman Seomihwa, "No License Revocations Despite Medical Disqualification Reasons"

It has been revealed that doctors suffering from mental illnesses such as drug addiction, dementia, and schizophrenia continue to practice medicine. Although they are legally prohibited from performing medical activities under the Medical Service Act, there are criticisms that the government has not established management measures for these individuals.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to Seo Mi-hwa, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, as of July this year, 40 doctors whose primary diagnosis was dementia (disease code F00) or schizophrenia (F20) conducted a total of 49,678 medical treatments.

Among them, 18 doctors had dementia as their primary diagnosis and 22 had schizophrenia, performing 17,669 and 32,009 treatments respectively.

In the previous year, 34 doctors with dementia conducted 55,606 treatments, while 27 doctors with schizophrenia performed 78,817 treatments.

The Medical Service Act stipulates that mental illness, as defined under the Act on the Improvement of Mental Health and the Support for Welfare Services for Mental Patients, is one of the disqualifications for medical practitioners. However, exceptions are made if a specialist is deemed fit to practice medicine.

Additionally, individuals addicted to narcotics, marijuana, or psychotropic drugs are also prohibited from becoming medical practitioners.

However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the competent authority, has not revoked any licenses of mental illness patients or drug addicts for five and a half years from 2019 to June this year.

For example, Doctor A, who began receiving treatment protection for drug addiction on January 22 of this year, performed 44 medical procedures until the treatment protection ended on July 6.

Representative Seo stated, "Last year, the Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out in a regular audit that management measures for medical practitioners with mental illness or drug addiction had not been established, but the Ministry of Health and Welfare has neither prepared such measures nor revoked a single license," adding, "The Ministry explained that the management plan for disqualified medical practitioners is currently 'under internal review.'"

Seo also said, "To proceed with administrative disciplinary procedures against disqualified medical practitioners, management measures must be established, but this has been delayed due to conflicts between the medical community and the government," and urged, "The government must promptly establish procedures to revoke licenses of medical practitioners disqualified under the Medical Service Act due to mental illness, drug addiction, and other reasons."