2024-07-16 13:52:55
It appears that each training hospital will proceed with the process of mass resignation as 10,000 residents ultimately do not respond to the call from the government and hospitals.
However, since medical school professors are opposed to recruiting in the second half of the year, and even if recruitment is conducted, it is highly likely that residents will not return, it is unlikely that the medical gap will be easily resolved.
According to the medical community on the 16th, major training hospitals held an emergency meeting the night before and agreed to collectively accept the resignations of residents who did not disclose whether they would resign or return to work.
It has been reported that most residents, with the exception of a very small number, ultimately did not respond to the request from training hospitals to ‘answer by the 15th about whether or not they will return or resign.’
The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s statistics clearly show the dire results. Even on the 15th, when residents had to report whether they would return or resign, only 1,155 out of 13,756 residents in 211 training hospitals were still working. This was still only in the 8% range, and the resignation rate was only 0.82%.
In response, hospitals have decided to process the resignations of residents who have not responded or returned to work. Of course, professors are protesting this, but the hospitals are saying that there is nothing they can do.
The president of a university in Seoul told News 1, “Late last night, the heads of the Big 5 hospitals decided to process the resignations of residents who did not respond to the request for a return to work, and we received a call asking our hospital to join them.” He added, “Once the Big 5 start processing the resignations, other university hospitals will likely join in. We will also decide after watching the situation.”
He added, “Hospitals will likely start processing resignations today or tomorrow,” and “Professors are protesting, but it seems there’s nothing we can do.”
The problem is the timing of the resignation. The residents are demanding that their resignations be processed based on February, when they submitted their resignation letters. If the resignation date is June, it would mean that they have been away from the hospital without permission for four months.
Accordingly, the Seoul National University Hospital Resident Emergency Response Committee sent an official letter to the hospital on the 15th asking, “Please accept the resignation in February.”
However, the government is insisting that although it can accept resignations in February due to issues such as retirement pay, the legal effect, such as training schedules, will be applied from June 4, when the ban on accepting resignations is lifted. In effect, this means that resignations must be processed after June 4.
Training hospitals have also been struggling with this issue. However, they are struggling with June 4 and July 15, judging that February 29, which is what the residents want, is not realistically possible.
An official from the Big 5 Hospitals said, “It is true that the presidents of the Big 5 Hospitals and Korea University Hospital met last night and had final discussions regarding June 4th and July 15th,” but added, “Since each hospital has its own position, no specific date was set.”
However, among the Big 5 hospitals, Seoul National University Hospital was the first to make a decision and sent a ‘resignation agreement’ to residents around 3:00 PM on the 16th.
According to the agreement, the hospital set the date of acceptance of the resignation as July 15, and the effective date of the resignation as February 29.
The fact that the resignation will take effect on February 29 means that the government’s ban on accepting resignations was lifted on June 4, so it will not have legal effect, but it means that the issue of individual settlement is based on the contractual relationship between the hospital and the residents, and that this part will be resolved by February.
However, other hospitals are continuing to struggle until the last minute. In particular, the reason why hospitals are struggling with June 4 and July 15 is that residents at Seoul National University, Severance, Seoul St. Mary’s, and Korea University Hospitals are enrolled in the Private School Pension, while residents at Samsung Seoul and Seoul Asan Hospitals are enrolled in the National Pension.
Another official from the Big 5 hospitals explained, “Since private school pensions are received based on what the employee has accumulated, regardless of when they resign, they will receive the private school pension accumulated up to February of the year they worked there.”
On the other hand, in the case of Samsung Seoul and Seoul Asan, since they have to follow the regulation that severance pay must be settled within 14 days of resignation like a regular workplace, it is highly likely that the processing date will be July 15th.
The reason the government urged each training hospital to accept resignations is because it applied ‘training special treatment’ (easing of restrictions on re-application within one year of resignation, easing of restrictions on recruitment subjects) to residents, allowing them to enter training hospitals through the September recruitment.
A Ministry of Health and Welfare official said, “If the training hospitals complete the resignation of the residents who have not returned and confirm the number of vacancies, and request this to the Training Environment Evaluation Committee office by the 17th, we will proceed with the second half of the year’s recruitment schedule for residents starting on the 22nd without a hitch.”
Of course, the Ministry of Health and Welfare came up with this measure as a way to get the residents to return even a little, but the response from professors and residents is not very good.
In a survey conducted by the Seoul National University Hospital-Seoul National University Emergency Response Committee on its affiliated professors on the 12th, when asked, “If the resignations of residents are accepted, do you think additional recruitment should be held in September?” 342 out of 538 (63.6%) answered, “There should not be additional recruitment in September.”
A medical school professor criticized the government’s measure, saying, “This measure is an act of complete disregard for residents,” and “It not only divides residents but also destroys trust between teachers and students.” He added, “There is no way residents will turn back to such a trick.”
In fact, the residents’ response is not good either.
A resident from a local hospital said, “The groundless rumors that local residents will come to the metropolitan area and threats to residents in the metropolitan area are really pathetic,” and “They need to say something scary, but residents aren’t moving because they’re saying something that makes people see through it.”
A medical professional pointed out, “This policy will only further hurt the feelings of the residents who are already angry,” and “I think the government must know that there are only a handful of residents who have held out so far and would use this to return now.”
Accordingly, the medical community predicts that residents will not return this year unless the government accepts their demands.
“We think this situation will continue at least until next year’s Lunar New Year,” said an official from Big 5 Hospital.
However, even if March of next year comes, there is no way for the residents to return. This is because the government decided to apply the ‘training special provision’ only to the September recruitment, so the residents will not be able to apply for the March recruitment next year.
A medical school professor said, “Even if the government applies the special measure early next year, I wonder if residents will want to come back if their demands are not met,” adding, “It’s sad that we are the only ones worried about the rapidly collapsing medical field while the situation continues with no solution in sight.”
Reporter Kim Jeong-hyeon Photo News 1
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2024-07-16 13:52:55