Presidential office rules out bringing in foreign doctors

A senior official of the presidential office said Monday that the government was not considering bringing in foreign doctors to alleviate the medical staffing shortage exacerbated by an ongoing walkout of trainee doctors.

The officials said on condition of anonymity that Seoul "is not immediately considering dealing with the medical staff shortage by deploying foreign physicians."

The comment came as the official was talking about ongoing disruptions in emergency medical centers due to staffing shortages combined with hospitals' financial strain, as the government maintained "severe" public health alert for nearly six months amid physicians' standoff with the conservative government that pushed for medical school enrollment quota hike.

According to Seoul, three out of 408 emergency medical centers suffer disruptions, while two of them will normalize their operation beginning in September.

Earlier in May, South Korea announced plans to revise the enforcement rule of the Medical Service Act. According to the proposed revision, those holding medical licenses from foreign countries could see their patients as long as the "severe" public health alert is issued -- the worst on a scale of four.

Under the current rule, foreign physicians are eligible to engage in educational activities, research work and medical volunteering without a license here.

Park Min-soo, the second vice minister of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said in a briefing in May that the revision "does not translate into South Korea's immediate plan to deploy foreign doctors, given that the emergency medical system does not suffer a major disruption." He added that the proposed revision will "provide legal grounds for the preemptive and complementary actions, in the event of any contingency in the future."

No further legislative actions were announced, after the government collected public opinions about the revision for two weeks until May 20.