Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Will doctors strike again amid unsolved license issue?
Choi Dae-zip, right, head of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) which represents local doctors, speaks during a press conference held in Seoul, in this Oct. 25 photo. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
The Korea Medical Association (KMA) urged the government, Thursday, to come up with measures to give medical students another opportunity to take the state medical licensing exam, warning that they are poised to launch another strike.
Doctors and the government are still at odds over whether to give fourth-year medical students another opportunity to take the state medical licensing exam after they boycotted this year's test. The KMA has set a deadline for resolving the issue. However, the government has been sticking to its position that there is little need to discuss the possibility of an additional exam unless there is a “society-wide consensus.”
“If the government does not come up with measures for the issue by Oct. 28, we will take special measures on Oct. 29," KMA President Choi Dae-zip said at a regular meeting of the association on the 25th.
The association is cautious about the possibility of staging immediate group action. In an interview on Wednesday, Choi declined to comment on the possibility of a strike, claiming his remarks could cause inconvenience for patients.
The medical community is opposed to government medical reform policies, including a proposed expansion of medical school student quotas, through a coordinated walkout by trainee doctors carried out in August. But while an agreement was reached, it also faced internal strife with hardliners within the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA).
Most trainee doctors, such as interns and residents, at general hospitals ended their collective action and returned to work, following an agreement with the government to put the reform plan on hold, but doctors have continued to demand that the government allow medical students to retake the medical licensing exam.
Nearly 90 percent of test-takers boycotted the state exam in protest of the government's plan.
As the coronavirus outbreak continues, public opinion won't favorable to another strike of the medical community.
However, the association also believes that it is difficult not to demand action from the government.
The medical community, including the KMA and presidents of university hospitals, has repeatedly raised their voices calling for a second chance for the medical students. In particular, presidents of some of the country's largest university hospitals ― Korea University Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Yonsei University Health System and Inha University Hospital ― jointly relayed a public apology, early this month, on behalf of their students' strike in the summer, while imploring the government to offer another chance for senior students to take the national medical licensing exam.
The government, however, repeated its earlier stance.
“The agreement between the KMA and the government is already open to the public and does not include an additional exam for the medical students,” health ministry spokesman Sohn Young-rae said during a recent regular briefing.