Healthcare Workers' Union: "Refusing Treatment Threatens Patients' Lives, Please Return to Patients' Side"

"Government Policies Also Need Improvement... Refusing Treatment Is Not the Solution"

The National Health and Medical Industry Labor Union (Health and Medical Union) issued an appeal on the 2nd, urging resident doctors engaged in collective action to "return to patients' side and join medical reform together with the public."

Amid the ongoing strong confrontation between the government and the medical community over the increase in medical school admissions, medical staff are moving at a large hospital in Seoul on the 29th of last month, the government's deadline for residents who left the hospital to return. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The union stated, "The collective refusal of treatment by resident doctors is threatening patients' lives," adding, "Surgeries, procedures, hospitalizations, and tests are not being conducted on time, causing the golden time for treatment to be missed."

They continued, "Abandoning patients' lives and engaging in collective action simultaneously is not an exercise of individual freedom but a collective refusal of treatment," and questioned, "Doctors have even abandoned essential medical departments directly linked to patients' lives, such as operating rooms, emergency rooms, intensive care units, delivery rooms, and neonatal units. What citizen could possibly accept this?"

Furthermore, they said, "Only doctors claim that there is no shortage of doctors, but patients, hospitals, experts, and the government all say that Korea lacks doctors," adding, "Illegal medical practices that shift doctors' duties due to the lack of doctors threaten public safety, patients cannot receive satisfactory treatment due to the shortage of doctors, and resident doctors are suffering from extreme labor conditions."

The Health and Medical Union also argued that the government's announced policies need supplementation. The union stated, "The essential medical policy package announced by the government includes some superficial or inadequate content, as well as ambiguous or concerning elements, so policy supplementation is urgently needed," emphasizing, "However, a complete nullification through refusal of treatment is not the solution."

They added, "Collective refusal of treatment that even abandons essential duties to save patients' lives cannot gain public sympathy and support," and said, "The reason for doctors' existence is patients and the public, and returning to patients' side is not surrendering to the government but receiving applause from the public. We appeal to embark on a new journey to change the distorted medical system."

The Health and Medical Union is a labor union involving workers from various health and medical fields, including nurses, with a membership reaching 85,000.

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