Latest news with #medicalpolicy
Free Malaysia Today
14-07-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
South Korea's medical students end 17-month class boycott
Doctors were protesting against the South Korean government's medical policy in Seoul. (EPA Images pic) SEOUL : Thousands of South Korean medical students are set to return to classrooms after a 17-month boycott, an industry body told AFP Monday, ending part of a standoff which also saw junior doctors strike. South Korean healthcare was plunged into chaos early last year when then-president Yoon Suk Yeol moved to sharply increase medical school admissions, citing an urgent need to boost doctor numbers to meet growing demand in a rapidly ageing society. The initiative met fierce protest, prompting junior doctors to walk away from hospitals and medical students to boycott their classrooms, with operations cancelled and service provision disrupted nationwide. The measure was later watered down, and the government eventually offered to scrap it in March 2025, after Yoon was impeached over his disastrous declaration of martial law. 'Students have agreed to return to school,' a spokesperson for the Korean Medical Association told AFP Monday, adding that it was up to each medical school to decide the schedule for student returns. The Korean Medical Students' Association said in an earlier statement that the students had reached this decision because a continued boycott 'could cause the collapse of the fundamentals of medical systems'. Some 8,300 students are expected to return to school, but no specific timeline has been provided. Prime minister Kim Min-seok welcomed the decision, calling it a 'big step forward' in a Facebook post Sunday, adding president Lee Jae Myung was deliberating ways to solve the issue. In addition to the student boycott, some 12,000 junior doctors went on strike last year – with the vast majority of them still declining to return to work. Lee – who took office in June after winning snap elections following Yoon's removal from office – had said on the campaign trail he would seek to resolve the medical strike. The increase in medical school admissions led to a record number of students re-taking the college entrance exam in November in a bid to capitalise on reforms that made it easier to get into coveted majors.
CTV News
11-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Some Ontario doctors can treat family members as regulatory college relaxes rules amid shortage
A doctor wears a lab coat and stethoscope in an exam room on Friday, July 14, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh TORONTO — The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is relaxing its policy against doctors treating themselves, family members and others close to them amid the province's primary care crisis. Doctors were previously only allowed to treat relatives and other people close to them in emergencies or for minor conditions if no other qualified health-care professional was readily available. Now, those practising in underserved areas can provide other medical care — including ordering tests and treating illnesses and injuries — if there isn't another option, such as virtual care, or an alternate health-care provider within a reasonable distance, said a policy that was approved by the CPSO's board in May and communicated to physicians in the June issue of its digital publication, 'Dialogue.' 'The policy responds most directly to ongoing challenges in accessing timely care in Ontario, with particular recognition of the unique considerations of physicians working in smaller communities,' said Laura Zilke, spokesperson for the CPSO, in an emailed response to The Canadian Press on Friday. 'The updates enable physicians to provide care beyond emergency treatment and treatment of minor conditions to people close to them in communities with limited treatment options, including rural, remote and Indigenous communities.' In some areas, the only doctor available to patients might be someone they're related to or have a close relationship with, the policy notes. Zilke said important safeguards remain in place 'to ensure high-quality care and minimize risks to patient safety.' '(The policy) continues to prohibit ongoing episodic care for family members or others close to the physician and requires care to be transferred to another provider as soon as practical when further treatment is needed,' she said. Doctors also can't do intimate examinations or prescribe narcotics to people close to them, except in an emergency. They are also not allowed to provide psychotherapy to family members. In an accompanying 'advice to the profession' on its website, the college encourages doctors to be mindful that personal relationships with patients 'can reasonably affect a physician's professional judgment in a number of ways,' including feeling uncomfortable discussing sensitive issues, feeling pressured to treat conditions that are beyond their expertise or to prescribe drugs. When asked for comment on the college's policy as a way to address the primary-care shortage, a spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said the CPSO is 'an independent regulatory body, which in Ontario is independently responsible for setting the rules and regulations that physicians need to follow.' She also said the provincial government is 'investing $2.1 billion to connect every single person in the province to primary care — and that will continue to be our focus.' Dr. Adil Shamji, a Toronto Liberal MPP and an emergency physician, said it is 'embarrassing' that the college had to change a policy that had been in place for a reason. 'Until recently, there's been a prohibition on physicians providing care to themselves, family members, or others close to them, because when providing care to such individuals, for various reasons, it can be difficult to maintain the standard of care,' he said in an interview Friday afternoon. 'The CPSO has been forced to adjust its policy to meet the new reality of profound health-care and primary-care scarcity in this province,' he said. Shamji placed the blame for the change squarely on Ontario's Progressive Conservative government, saying they were 'leaving regulatory bodies such as the CPSO with no choice but to resort to amending their policies in the interest of ultimately delivering at least some care to patients in our province.' With files from Allison Jones This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025. Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press
