(4th LD) Health ministry takes 1st legal step against protesting doctors amid chaos

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; INCORPORATES details on ministry's filing of police complaint from story slugged 'govt-doctors' in paras 2-5; TRIMS)

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- The government on Tuesday stepped up its hard-line approach to doctors protesting against its plan to boost medical students, taking the first legal action since the start of a mass walkout by junior doctors about a week ago.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare filed a complaint with the police against five doctors affiliated with the Korea Medical Association, the largest doctors' lobby group, seeking a probe on charges of the violation of the medical law and obstruction of justice, officials with knowledge of the matter said.

It marks the first legal step the government has taken since some 9,000 interns and residents walked off the job eight days ago to protest the government's plan to increase the med school enrollment quota by 2,000.

Their walkout has crippled the local medical system, prompting the government to take stern legal and other administrative actions.

The government has set this Thursday as the back-to-work deadline for the protesting doctors to avoid legal punishment, including suspension of their licenses.

"We will continue to respond under the law and the principle for illegal collective action," Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong told reporters earlier in the day. "We urge trainee doctors who have left their workplaces to return by Thursday. If they do, they will not be held accountable for previous actions."

"Starting March, suspending licenses and initiating legal proceedings will be unavoidable for those who do not return," Cho said.

Authorities will conduct an on-site inspection at 50 hospitals by the end of this week to probe into work stoppages by trainee doctors, Cho said.

Under the Medical Service Act, the government possesses the authority to potentially revoke doctors' licenses should they receive criminal punishments after failing to adhere to the order to return to work.

To make up for a "vacuum" in medical services, nurses were allowed to perform more medical roles from Tuesday under legal protection, according to the health ministry.

Officials said that 8,939 trainee doctors, or 72.7 percent of the total, have walked off the job as of Monday night. The number of trainee doctors who submitted their resignations came to 9,909.

Since trainee doctors began the mass walkout, the number of new patients has fallen 24 percent at general hospitals, while the number of surgeries performed has plunged 50 percent there.

Joining the protest against the quota hike plan, more than 13,000 medical students, or nearly 70 percent of the total, have also filed for leave of absence from school across the nation since Feb. 19.

Other medical students also boycotted classes at six medical schools across the nation in their collective action on Monday, the education ministry said.

Concerns about a health care service crisis are deepening with cases of patient damage piling up, with an elderly woman dying of cardiac arrest without treatment.

South Korea has been pushing to increase the number of medical freshmen to address a shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas and essential medical fields, such as high-risk surgeries, pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency medicine.

Doctors, however, argue that the government should rather focus on protecting them from malpractice suits and improving compensation to induce more physicians to practice in such unpopular areas.

The government, meanwhile, plans to investigate a case from the central city of Daejeon, where an 80-something patient died upon arriving at a hospital after searching for an available emergency room for nearly an hour, amid the vacancy of trainee doctors.

elly@yna.co.kr

colin@yna.co.kr
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