Patients in wheelchairs wait for treatment at a large hospital in Seoul on May 7, 2024.
SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap) — Those with medical licenses issued abroad will be allowed to practice medicine legally in South Korea if the government declares a high-level alert for medical services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday.
The executive regulations of the Medical Law were amended at a time when the country is witnessing major unrest in the medical service due to the months-long strike of trainee doctors in protest against the government’s attempt to increase the current quota by 2,000 places. 3,058 accepted Medical collegesstarting next year.
Under the amendment, those with a foreign medical license will be allowed to practice medicine in South Korea, after the approval of the Minister of Health and Welfare, when the country is in the highest medical disaster alert status.
The government announced that it will publish a notice of the amendment, starting from Wednesday until May 20.
After a strike by trainee doctors on February 20, the government raised the national alert for medical disasters to the highest level of “severe” as of February 23 and activated emergency response mode.
More than 90 percent of the country’s 13,000 trained doctors have stopped their work Medical professorsWho work as experienced doctors in hospitals, submitted their resignations to support the trainee doctors and urge the government to make significant progress.
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