Health and Welfare Vice Minister Park Min-soo, who also serves as vice director of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, made the announcement during a meeting on Tuesday, March 21.
Park urged the striking resident doctors to "immediately return to their hospitals for the sake of patients," their colleagues, and their own careers.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) explained that all resident doctors must be registered by their hospitals in a system by the end of the month. If a doctor who is registered as a resident this year is not entered into the system, they will not be able to start working as a resident and will not be eligible to become a specialist doctor next year.
According to the "Specialist Physician Internship and Qualification Certification Regulations," doctors who fail to attend their internships will also delay their internship period and the acquisition of their specialist qualification.
Earlier in February, the South Korean government announced a plan to increase the number of medical school admissions from 3,058 to 5,058 by the 2025 academic year in response to the shortage of doctors. This move was met with strong opposition from doctors' groups and medical school students, sparking a large-scale walkout by resident doctors. As a result, the government has served administrative notices to strike-bound residents and interns, including threats to revoke their medical licenses.
