By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Doctors teaching at non-university hospitals are likely to lose their honorary title of professor after a court recently made a ruling banning them from enjoying the same status as regular professors at school-affiliated hospitals.
The Seoul Administrative Court recently said, ``Doctors teaching at Eulji University's medical college, who originally belonged to non-university hospitals including those in partnership with the university's affiliated hospitals, cannot be treated the same as regular medical school professors, even if they hold a teaching license at a medical school.''
Non-regular professors have enjoyed various privileges including the scholar-only pension program.
The Ministry of Education estimates around 1,700 professors will be affected by the ruling.
Medical schools began to hire them as professors as a means to cope with chronic staff shortages mainly at provincial medical colleges. With the ruling, however, many of them will be forced to leave the campus, which could cripple education for interns and residents.
According to the ministry, there are seven universities granting doctors at non-university hospitals professor status ― Eulji, Kwandong, Sungkyunkwan, Ulsan, Hallym, and the College of Medicine at Pochon Cha University, and Gachon University of Medicine and Science.
Samsung Medical Center is an entity established for social welfare ― not an affiliated hospital ― owned by Sungkyunkwan University's medical college. Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center and Masan Samsung Hospital are also not affiliated with university. But nearly 400 senior doctors at the three hospitals have been teaching at the university, receiving the same benefits as other regular professors.
The education ministry said this was an inevitable method to put the ailing medical education back on track, and it wasn't considering forcing medical schools to follow the ruling due to undesirable side effects.
``The government is not going to bar them from teaching medical students,'' a senior official said. ``But it is not a matter we can decide alone as it requires negotiations among concerned parties including the Ministry of Health.''
The case is pending at the appellate court.
The education ministry is encouraging hospitals in partnerships with medical schools to change their legal status to a university-affiliated hospital.