Professor Bang Jae-seung, chairman of the emergency committee of the Seoul National University College of Medicine and Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) faculty council, will lay down both the chairmanship and professorship.

Bang and three other medical professors who served on the emergency committee have decided to leave the hospital next Wednesday. All of them have been working in “essential care.”

At a news conference on Wednesday, the medical school’s emergency committee announced that four professors, including Bang, will resign on May 1, the day after the end of the committee’s second term. After a survey of professors, the committee also decided to suspend all treatments on April 30. However, the university has not decided on a "once-a-week closure," it said.

The third-term emergency committee will decide the full vacation schedule after April 30.

"Professors have been working ultra-long hours for over two months, and their bodies and minds have been extremely exhausted. To recover a little bit, we will implement a complete suspension of medical services for one day on April 40 in all treatment areas except for emergency, severely ill, and hospitalized patients," the committee said.

The committee explained that more than half of the professors surveyed expressed their intention to take a full-day leave of absence on April 30.

“Based on this, we decided to take a leave of absence at the general assembly on Tuesday. According to individual professors’ respective treatment schedules, they will have an entire or partial break,” it said. “The remaining professors will do their best to ensure that the treatment of emergency, severely ill, and hospitalized patients is as uninterrupted as possible."

The resignations of professors at Seoul National University College of Medicine have also become visible. According to the emergency committee’s decision, professors began submitting their resignations individually on March 25, most of which are due to take effect this month.

The emergency committee said it would “leave resignation up to the professor's personal choice."

The professors who decided to resign on May 1 are those in the cardiothoracic surgery and neurosurgery departments. Professor Bang specialized in brain diseases at the Department of Neurosurgery in the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH).

"I am resigning as the last card a professor can play," Professor Bang said. "On Tuesday, I told the hospital's vice president that I would leave the hospital on May 1. If my resignation is not accepted, it will be ‘regarded as unauthorized absence.’” Bang added that he is prepared to face disciplinary action for that.

Bang said it is also difficult to understand the meaning of a professorship in a situation in which the research and education functions of university hospitals have collapsed.

“As a professor at the Seoul National University College of Medicine, I can neither research nor educate students adequately now. It's virtually over. We can no longer compete with the world's leading hospitals," he said. "We are barely providing medical treatment and are not doing it well. What is the point of working as a professor in such a situation?"

Professor Bang said if the government pushes ahead with the policy of increasing the number of medical students, there will be a “100 percent chance of medical collapse in May.”

“There seems to be little hope. Yet the government says, 'There are no real professor resignations,' which is a lie. They don't know our true intentions, so we are ‘really’ resigning," he said.

He compared the current medical crisis to the sinking of the Titanic.

"The navigator reports that the Titanic is hitting a reef, but the captain criticizes the navigator for making the passengers restless. What good is it if the ship hits a reef and sinks? Playing music (to calm passengers' anxiety) won't save them," Bang said.

Gyeongsang National University Hospital also decided to close its doors next Tuesday. Its emergency committee said the hospital would close outpatient and surgical services on April 30, citing "mental and physical exhaustion from working more than 70 to 100 hours a week." It did not discuss whether the closure would be regular.

Wonkwang University Hospital enters a "once-a-week treatment suspension.” The university's emergency committee has decided to suspend outpatient clinics and surgeries every Friday from April 26. Next Monday, the committee will also submit resignation letters submitted by 110 faculty members directly to the university.