Review of legal punishment for “medical school professor resignation level 66”

Amid a series of mass resignations and temporary absences from medical school professors, it has been confirmed that the government is reviewing the legal basis and timing for punishing these medical school professors.

However, the government believes that the actual number of medical school professors who have resigned en masse is not large.

This is reporter Park So-hee’s report.

◀ Report ▶

Professors at the ‘Big 5’ large hospitals in the metropolitan area, including Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, have all decided to take a collective leave of absence.

The government has repeatedly appealed to withdraw mass resignations and furloughs.

[한덕수/국무총리]
″They say there will be mass resignations and mass closures, but I believe they will protect the lives of patients until the end.″

However, the government understands that the volume of resignation letters submitted by medical school professors is not large.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s internal statistics reported by MBC, as of the 24th, among 19,550 specialists at 88 hospitals at 40 medical schools, 1,298 had submitted resignation letters, or 6.6% of the total.

Based on the number of full-time professors, 775 out of 11,961 people from 13 hospitals submitted a collective resignation letter.

It was also confirmed that the government is reviewing whether and when legal disciplinary action will be taken against these professors who resigned.

[전병왕/보건복지부 보건의료정책실장]
″Regarding collective action, does it violate relevant laws? Let me just say that we are also considering these aspects.”

In fact, according to the internal review plan of the revised version, it is judged that mass resignations and temporary absences can be punished or disciplined as ‘collective acts outside of official duties’ under the National Civil Service Act and the Private School Act for both national and private university professors.

The government interprets that collective resignation is grounds for disciplinary action, so submitting a resignation letter does not take effect immediately.

A government official said, “We will continue our dialogue efforts until the end of April, but if there is no result, we are considering starting disciplinary proceedings in May.”

Meanwhile, the police additionally searched and seized President-elect Lim Hyun-taek of the Medical Association, who will begin his term on the 1st of next month.

This is Park So-hee from MBC News.