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Professors from five major hospitals in Seoul, known as the ‘Big Five’, decided to suspend outpatient treatment and surgery one day a week.
According to the medical community on the 26th, Seoul National University Hospital, Severance Hospital, Asan Medical Center in Seoul, and Samsung Seoul Hospital have already officially announced one day of closure a week, and professors at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital have also decided to participate in the closure.
However, the policy is to maintain treatment for emergency/severe patients and hospitalized patients.
Even if a break date is set at the faculty emergency committee level, it has been decided to leave it to the individual professors to decide whether to participate or not.
The Severance Hospital Professor Emergency Committee will continue to take a day off every week starting on the 30th until the end of next month. Professors at Seoul National University Hospital decided to discuss whether to take a regular break at the 3rd Emergency Committee to be launched next month.
Asan Medical Center in Seoul will stop general patient treatment and surgeries on the 3rd of next month in accordance with the situation of each department. This is in accordance with the decision of the emergency committee of professors at Ulsan Medical University, which had Asan Medical Center in Seoul as its training hospital. Ulsan University Hospital will also be closed on the same day.
Professors at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital also agreed to close for one day, although the specific date was not disclosed. Professors at Samsung Seoul Hospital take one day off each week depending on whether they work overtime or not.
Previously, the Sungkyunkwan University Medical School Professor Emergency Committee told professors at Samsung Seoul Hospital, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, and Samsung Changwon Hospital to “observe 52-hour work hours per week, and professors who are fatigued due to overworking hours are allowed to have a day without treatment such as outpatient treatment or surgery once a week.” “Please set aside a day off and take some rest,” he advised.
According to Sungkyunkwan University Medical School’s emergency committee, 86% of professors are suffering from overtime of more than 52 hours a week, so it is expected that most professors will take one day off a week in accordance with the recommendation.
