A lawmaker has criticized that some doctors with mental illness and drug addiction continue to practice medical care. The legislator added that the government has not proceeded to revoke the licenses of these doctors despite an audit report last year.

According to data submitted to Rep. Seo Mi-hwa of the Democratic Party of Korea by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a doctor who started receiving treatment protection in January due to addiction to narcotics was found to have performed 44 medical practices until July, when his treatment protection ended.

Doctors diagnosed with dementia and schizophrenia also continued to practice medicine.

From last year to July this year, 52 doctors with Alzheimer's performed 73,275 medical practices, and 49 doctors with schizophrenia conducted 110,826 medical practices.

The current medical law stipulates that people with mental illness or drug addiction are not allowed to become medical practitioners. In addition, if a person is disqualified from practicing medicine, their license must be revoked.

Last year, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) pointed out that the Ministry of Health and Welfare had not established a management plan for mentally ill and drug-addicted doctors in a regular audit. However, the government has not prepared a management plan for a year.

In the past five years, there has not been a single case of license revocation for disqualified doctors, including those cited in last year's audit, due to mental illness and drug addiction.

The government explained that it needs to develop a management plan to proceed with administrative disposition procedures, such as license revocation for disqualified medical personnel, but this is delayed due to the protracted government-doctor conflict.

A ministry official replied to Rep. Seo and said the Ministry of Health and Welfare is now internally reviewing the management plan for disqualified medical practitioners.

“Administrative personnel are concentrated on cleaning up the mess caused by the Yoon administration conflicts with the medical community, which is causing a cascading decline in the quality of healthcare services,” Seo said. “The government should immediately establish a procedure to revoke the licenses of medical professionals disqualified under the Medical Service Act for reasons such as mental illness and drug addiction.”