Doctors' group files complaint against health minister over abuse of power

Lim Hyun-taek, president of the Korean Pediatric Association, holds up a complaint file against the health minister and vice health minister over abuse of power, March 19. Yonhap

A group of doctors filed a complaint against the health minister and one of his deputies Tuesday in connection with a protracted row over the government's decision to increase the country's medical school enrollment quota.

The group, known as the "group of doctors for the future," filed the complaint with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), accusing Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong and Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo of abuse of power.

The group took issue with the ministry's orders for interns and resident doctors to return to work, and for hospitals not to accept collective resignations that the trainee doctors submitted in protest of the quota hike.

Cho and Park "went beyond the Constitution and the law" to issue the orders, Lim Hyun-taek, head of the Korean Pediatric Association, who also heads the doctors' group, told reporters in front of the CIO office in Gwacheon, south of Seoul.

"They have abused their authority to obstruct some 13,000 trainee doctors from exercising their legitimate rights, including the right to rest and the right to resign," Lim said.

The government claims it can issue such orders as the relevant medical service law allows such measures in the case of a potential grave threat to public health. (Yonhap)