A “blacklist” of emergency room doctors opting not to join their striking colleagues was found on a website amid the worsening medical crisis over the monthslong standoff between the government and doctors due to a medical school admission quota hike plan, officials said Monday.

An online post at the website believed to be made by doctors showed the list of doctors who currently serve at hospital emergency rooms, calling them “forced laborers” and derisively expressing gratitude for their “hard work.”

The health ministry said it will report the case to police and ask for a probe.

“There has been such a blacklist of doctors who have not joined the strike uploaded on the website, and this is a new one. The list contains personal information and malicious comments about ER doctors, so we will request a police investigation,” a ministry official said.

A majority of trainee doctors have left their workplaces since February in protest of the government’s plan to increase the medical school admissions quota by
2,000 seats per year over the next five years or so to address the shortage of doctors.

The collective action has caused disruptions of the national health care system, and concerns have mounted over the situation worsening further during the extended Chuseok holiday that begins on Saturday, particularly at short-staffed emergency rooms.

Several hospitals have shortened the operation hours of emergency rooms after suffering from medical staff shortages.

The government has sent military and public doctors to hospitals struggling with staffing. But such measures are far from addressing the situation, according to doctors and hospital officials.

Doctors have called on the government to cancel its plan to raise the medical school admissions quota for 2025 and 2026 and discuss the possible quota adjustment for 2027 or afterward.

But the government has said it would not be possible to adjust the quota for next year as due procedures for college entrance have already begun.

Source: Yonhap News Agency