Gyeonggi-do Issues Strong Warning to Medical Sector Against 'Illegal Closure'

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has decided to take strong administrative measures if the collective strike planned by the Korean Medical Association on the 14th is confirmed to be an illegal strike. Additionally, from the 12th, the province will operate an emergency medical response situation room and issue medical treatment orders under the names of the 31 mayors and county governors within the province.

On the 7th, Gyeonggi Province held an emergency countermeasure meeting chaired by Kim Hee-gyeom, the first deputy governor of administration, to prepare for the Korean Medical Association’s collective action. It was announced that an emergency medical system would be established by issuing medical treatment orders to clinic-level medical institutions through city and county offices on the planned strike day.

Previously, the Korean Medical Association declared a collective strike starting on the 14th in opposition to healthcare issues such as increasing medical school quotas, establishing public medical schools, coverage of herbal medicine, and telemedicine.

Deputy Governor Kim said, "The Korean Medical Association has announced a collective strike on the 14th, raising concerns about disruption in medical services," and urged, "Each city and county in the province should prepare thoroughly to ensure no medical service gaps occur."

Accordingly, the province first requested each city and county to take administrative actions against 7,178 clinic-level medical institutions within the province. On the same day, the province sent an official letter requesting the 31 cities and counties to take three administrative measures in preparation for the medical community’s collective strike: ▲ medical treatment orders on the planned strike day ▲ strike notification orders for reporting the strike ▲ work commencement orders if the strike is confirmed.

The medical treatment order on the planned strike day is an administrative order issued under the names of mayors and county governors urging medical institutions to provide treatment on the 14th, the planned strike day.

The strike notification order requires medical institutions that must close on the strike day due to unavoidable reasons to report the closure to the local public health center at least four days in advance.

The work commencement order is issued if the number of institutions reporting closure in a city or county reaches 10% or more of all clinic-level medical institutions. The number of closure reports will be monitored and the order will be activated on the 12th.

The province plans to investigate on the 14th whether illegal strikes occur and verify any violations of the Medical Service Act before taking administrative actions.

Under the current Medical Service Act, violations of administrative orders can result in a 15-day suspension of medical institutions and imprisonment of up to three years or fines up to 30 million won for medical personnel.

Separately from administrative orders, the province requested 352 hospital-level or higher medical institutions within the province to extend weekday treatment hours and provide weekend and holiday medical services in preparation for emergencies caused by the collective strike. Additionally, 91 emergency medical institutions, emergency medical facilities, and general hospital emergency rooms will maintain a 24-hour emergency patient treatment system.

Six hospitals under the Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center?Suwon, Uijeongbu, Paju, Icheon, Anseong, and Pocheon?and Seongnam City Medical Center will operate outpatient clinics and 24-hour emergency rooms normally during the medical staff’s collective strike period to minimize medical service gaps.

Furthermore, to minimize medical service gaps, the Gyeonggi Province Emergency Medical Response Situation Room will be established and operated from the 12th until the end of the collective strike.

The situation room will continuously monitor the working status of public health centers by city and county, check the operation status of emergency medical institutions during the strike period, and take strong measures against institutions that fail to provide emergency medical services according to relevant laws.

Information on medical institutions available for treatment during the strike period will also be provided 24 hours a day.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare call center 129, 119 Emergency Situation Management Center, National Health Insurance Service (1577-1000), and Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (1644-2000) call centers will provide guidance on medical institutions by phone.

The emergency medical information smartphone application is also available for use.

A provincial official explained, "Regarding the collective strike by resident doctors on the 7th, the province expects no significant disruption in medical services due to the deployment of substitute personnel," and added, "An emergency medical support system is maintained to prepare for large-scale patient occurrences."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.