(LEAD) Hospitals begin hiring trainee doctors while med professors warn of boycotting training programs

Hospitals started hiring about 7,700 trainee doctors on Monday, although some medical professors have warned of boycotting their training programs in protest of the government's push for accepting the resignations of striking trainees. Monthslong standoffs with trainee doctors over the medical school admission quota hikes have shown no end in sight, as trainee doctors have been unresponsive to the government's appeasement steps, including a plan to abandon all punitive steps against striking trainee doctors. More than 90 percent of around 13,000 junior doctors walked off their jobs in February in the form of resignations against the government's plan to sharply raise medical school admissions, and hospitals accepted resignations from 7,648 trainees upon the government's request this week. The government is recruiting new trainees to minimize the impact of the mass resignations, and hospitals have sought 7,707 training doctors combined for the training program set to be launched in September, according to the health ministry. Still, doctors have demanded the government revisit the quota hike decision, claiming that medical schools will not be able to handle the increased enrollment. Lim Hyun-taek, the president of the Korea Medical Association, said in a social media posting that the government "must fully accept demands from trainee doctors and medical students," adding that doing so is "the only way" to resolve the standoff. Also, it remains uncertain how many trainee doctors will apply for training programs in September. "I am not sure if there will even be any applicants," an official from a training hospital in Seoul said, hinting that junior doctors who apply for training programs might be harassed by their colleagues or professors, given the nature of apprenticeship in their training. Last week, medical professors from the radiology department at the Catholic University of Korea stated that they will "never replace trainee doctors who are fighting against wrongful state policy with other trainees." The government has already finalized an admissions quota hike of approximately 1,500 students for medical schools next year in an effort to address problems stemming from the shortage of doctors. Source: Yonhap News Agency