It is said that it is the first day of the medical school professor’s resignation… At the end of treatment, patients are the only ones concerned.

As the day comes when the resignation letters submitted by medical school professors begin to take effect, tensions are rising in the medical field.

According to the medical community on the 25th, there was no clear resignation movement at major domestic large hospitals, including the ‘Big 5’ such as Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hospital, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, Asan Medical Center, and Samsung Seoul Hospital. It is reported that most of the professors who submitted their resignations remained on site and were seeing patients.

Since today is the first day that resignations take effect, there are concerns that over time, professors may gradually leave the hospital as their resignations become effective.

There are also professors who do not resign immediately after a month has passed after submitting their resignation letter, but instead set their ‘desired resignation date’ at a later date. This is to complete work, such as linking patients under care to other hospitals. In fact, Professors Kang Hee-kyung and Ahn Yo-han of the Department of Pediatrics and Nephrology at Seoul National University Hospital submitted their resignation letters and set the end of their employment as ‘August 31st.’

There is also an analysis that the effective date of the resignation was spread out because the timing of submission of the resignation was different.

An official from Seoul National University’s professor emergency committee said, “I understand that professors began submitting their resignations on the 25th of last month and have continued to submit them ever since. The dates they wish to resign may be different, and they will leave (the hospital) according to their individual schedules.” .

In some medical schools, there were many cases where the faculty emergency committee collected and kept the resignation letters written by professors but did not submit them to the president. There are cases where the dean of a medical school has it but has not delivered it to the university headquarters.

Accordingly, some medical school professors are receiving legal advice regarding the validity of their resignation letters.

Choi Yong-soo, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University Medical School and chairman of the emergency committee, said, “The person who received the resignation letter is in an ‘unopened’ and anonymous state, so we are consulting on whether it is valid.” He added, “As of now, I understand that the resignation letter from Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine will be effective from the 1st of next month.”

The Emergency Committee, a professor at Ulsan Medical School whose training hospitals include Asan Medical Center in Seoul, is preparing to resign, believing that simply submitting a letter of resignation to the medical school is sufficient to express one’s intention.

An official from the Ulsan Medical School professor emergency committee said, “Currently, the professors’ resignation letters are held at the dean level, but we have been advised that once the dean has them, we can proceed as if they have been received by the medical school.”

This official added, “According to hospital regulations, most professors will leave after the 30th.”

The Ministry of Health and Welfare believes that not many medical school professors have submitted resignation letters to university headquarters.

Medical school professors are affiliated with the university headquarters and often perform concurrent duties at hospitals and lectures at universities. In this case, you must submit a letter of resignation to the university. Although they are called professors, professors who only belong to a hospital must express their intention to resign to the hospital director.

Some say that only about 800 professors, or 7% of the total, actually submitted resignation letters to university presidents and hospital directors over the course of a month, or that only about 80 submitted them to university headquarters.

Even though the mass resignation of medical staff has not yet become a reality, the anxiety of patients who are about to undergo treatment and surgery is growing.

Major large hospitals have already reduced surgeries by more than half and outpatient clinics have also been reduced by 20 to 30 percent. If professors continue to resign, the medical gap will inevitably widen.

The closure of large hospitals starting next week is also adding to the anxiety of patients.

The Seoul National University College of Medicine-Seoul National University Hospital Professor Emergency Committee and Yonsei University College of Medicine Professor Emergency Committee will respectively suspend all outpatient treatment and surgery for one day on the 30th. In the case of the emergency committee of professors at Yonsei University College of Medicine, it was decided to continue one day of absence every week until the end of next month. The Emergency Committee, a professor at Ulsan Medical University, also announced that it would close once a week starting from the 3rd of next month.

The Korean Federation of Patient Organizations appealed, “Please remain at the medical site after the 25th so that essential serious medical care directly related to life, such as emergency rooms, intensive care units, operating rooms, and delivery rooms, can be operated stably.”