In 2020, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that it will officially promote policies such as making a salary of herbal medicine and implementing telemedicine. Doctors protested the announcement and the subsequent breakdown of negotiations between the group of doctors and the government led to the strike by Korean Medical Association. The doctors' group is concerned that herbal medicine is paid before its validity is verified, and claims that the increase in the number of College of Medicine distorts the medical system due to excessive competition, contrary to the government's original intentions. At the same time, they also criticize the establishment of new public College of Medicine as tantamount to a government achievement, and the implementation of telemedicine is an issue that breaks down the fundamental system of medical science. However, was the strike method by association of doctors appropriate during COVID-19 situation?
Medical strikes through denials of treatment cannot be justified. When the public desperately need help of medical professionals as the COVID-19 situation continues, the way medical specialists express their opinions through the method of rejecting medical treatment was not right. A patient hospitalized at Kangwon National University Hospital was left in a vegetative state after a cardiac arrest resulting from a collective medical leave and strike. In Busan, a man who drank drugs was in critical condition and 119 paramedics called 13 emergency centers ask for cleaning his stomach, but all of the patient transportations were denied. Such collective selfishness, which puts strikes before the lives of emergency patients, has resulted in a medical vacancy causing unexpected damage to the public. Furthermore, the public's anxiety over the COVID-19 has led to distrust in most of the medical staff due to an indefinite mass shutdown, whose opening date is uncertain.
Doctors enjoy privileges in the course of medical strikes. Medical students refused to take the practical test of the national medical exam in protest while doctors continued their strike. Is it really possible to cancel the national exam in a group, believing that the state would in any way present them with relief? If they got a doctor's license in the special re-application method, they would be more selfish than the medical specialists, the main agents of this medical strike. In addition, Thanks To challenge for medical workers who have done their best to respond to COVID-19 turned into Blaming the People Who Supported Them Challenge by medical students. It clearly shows what kind of privilege the medical community has had for their professional ability. Doctors need to be faithful to their duties as doctors rather than strikes.
It is true that they should be recognized for their efforts to enter College of Medicine and become doctors, but they need to have a mission and a sense of responsibility as doctors instead of claiming only their interests. Plus, they must have carried out the medical with minimal damage to the people who get practical help from the medical community.
