By Lee Kyung-min
Harsh working conditions for young doctors will be improved following a new law that will reduce their maximum working hours to 80 hours a week, down from the 100 hours or more they work now.
Late Wednesday night, the National Assembly passed a special act concerning the working conditions of medical trainees, the first move aimed at protecting their rights since the medical training system was introduced here in 1951.
The law will take effect as early as 2017 after the government proclaims it, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. When the government will proclaim the act has not yet been set.
Under the new rule, interns and residents will not be allowed to work for more than 80 hours a week. Also, they will not be allowed to work for more than 36 hours straight. Even in emergency situations, the hours cannot exceed 40.
When working in emergency rooms, 12 hours off is required after 12 hours on. This can be changed to 24 hours on and 24 hours off only when allowed by the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine.
They will also be banned from working the night shift for more than three nights a week. They can have at least one day off a week, and at least 14 days of leave a year.
While trainee doctors used to receive a fixed allowance for night duty regardless of how many nights they were on duty, they will receive the allowance according to the number of nights they work.
Young doctors welcomed the move.
“We are able to address the longstanding harsh working conditions now,” the Korean Intern Resident Association said in a statement. “We are doctors, but we are also laborers with human rights that should be protected under the Labor Law.
“Many residents and interns at hospitals have long been exploited, but could not speak up because such action met criticism from not only senior doctors but also the public.”
However, hospitals raised concerns against the move, saying the law lacks proper countermeasures to deal with manpower shortages.
“Without any detailed measures to fix the fundamental problems including low medical fees and a lack of medical staff, the law favors only the young doctors," said an official from the Korean Hospital Association. “We’ll need to hire more people, but it is not easy to get eligible trainees, and the extra employment will raise hospital expenses.”
There have been growing calls to improve working conditions for young doctors, following the death of a boy, 9, after a sleep-deprived medical trainee gave him the wrong injection in 2010.
At the time, fellow trainees said they suffered from hectic working conditions, and that misdiagnosis or mistakes were highly related to doctors being deprived of sleep.