Starting Today, Medical Licenses Can Be Revoked Even for Causing Traffic Accidents

Expansion of License Revocation Disqualifications
Regardless of Crime Type
When Sentenced to Imprisonment or Higher

From today, if medical professionals such as doctors are sentenced to imprisonment or higher, their licenses will be revoked regardless of the type of crime.

Medical professionals whose licenses are revoked due to committing crimes must complete 40 hours of medical ethics education, among other requirements, even if they pass the license reissuance review after serving their sentence, in order to be eligible to regain their license.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the medical community on the 20th, the scope of license revocation for medical professionals has been expanded from the previous 'violation of the Medical Service Act' to 'all crimes except medical accidents' under the 'Doctor License Revocation Act,' which is now being enforced.

This follows the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s resolution on the 14th at the Cabinet meeting to strengthen the requirements for license reissuance through a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Medical Service Act.

Due to strong calls for reconsideration mainly from doctors, the medical license revocation law, better known as the 'Doctor License Revocation Act,' primarily expands the disqualification criteria for medical licenses. It applies not only to doctors, dentists, and Korean medicine doctors but also to midwives and nurses.

After a medical professional’s license is revoked due to committing a crime, to have the license reissued, they must pay out of pocket and complete more than 40 hours of related education, including understanding patient rights. This will apply to cases of license reissuance after the enforcement of the Doctor License Revocation Act on the 20th.

More than half of all committee members must agree for license reissuance

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the medical community on the 20th, the scope of license revocation for medical professionals has been expanded from the existing "violation of the Medical Service Act" to "all crimes except medical accidents" under the "Medical License Revocation Act," which will be enforced.
[Photo by Getty Images Bank]

Medical professionals whose licenses have been revoked cannot simply regain their licenses by completing the education program. At least five out of nine members of the entire committee reviewing the license reissuance must agree.

As of the second quarter of this year, the license reissuance rate by the review committee is low at 10.4%. Only those selected as candidates for license reissuance through the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s review are eligible to complete the education program, and after completing the program, they can finally regain their license.

However, some criticize that the requirements for medical license reissuance are unclear. In particular, there are concerns about fairness because the majority of the committee members reviewing license reissuance are current or former doctors.

In response to such criticism, a government official said, "We plan to prepare improvement measures for the license reissuance system next year after conducting research."

The medical community has also expressed concerns about the enforcement of the Doctor License Revocation Act.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA), the Korean Dental Association (KDA), and others have opposed the law, stating, "Expanding the reasons for license revocation to all crimes without considering the type and circumstances of the crime infringes on the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution, such as the right to livelihood and freedom to perform one’s occupation." While they agree with revoking medical licenses for heinous and antisocial crimes such as murder and sex crimes, they argue that licenses could be revoked due to civil or criminal negligence unrelated to work, such as traffic accidents or financial crimes.

The KMA and others also argue that if medical licenses can be revoked due to traffic accidents caused by accidental mistakes, medical professionals will choose relatively less risky fields of practice and engage in defensive medicine for the sake of themselves and their families.

The KMA emphasizes self-regulation rights and demands that medical organizations be given authority to manage doctor licenses. A KMA official said, "Following the reorganization of the 'Korean Medical License Management Institute Establishment Task Force (tentative name)' on the 9th, we will also reorganize the ‘Special Committee for Autonomous Purification’ to restore public trust through self-regulatory activities within the medical community."

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