Professors from nearly 20 medical schools in South Korea pledged to resign on March 25, 2024 to protest against the government’s plan to increase medical school admissions the following year. But social media posts — which speculated about the resignations before they were officially announced — misleadingly shared a photo that actually shows some fresh recruits.
“Professors at Hanyang University Hospital resign,” reads the Korean-language title of a post shared on a popular South Korean online forum called DC Inside on March 12.
It included a screenshot of an article published the same day by South Korean online news outlet Rapportian about some newly hired specialist doctors at Hanyang University Hospital in the capital Seoul (archived link).
The image shows 11 doctors in white coats.
Some 10,000 junior doctors in South Korea walked off the job in a standoff with the government over proposed medical training reforms since February 20.
If implemented, the plan would see 2,000 more students admitted to medical schools annually from next year to address what Seoul has said is one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed nations.
The striking medics have argued the proposed plan will erode service quality. Some medical professors have also said they plan to resign on March 25 over the row, Yonhap News Agency reported (archived link).
The misleading online posts — circulated before any official announcement about the planned resignations — were shared on South Korean online forums such as FM Korea and Beflix, and Instagram.
However, the image of the newly hired doctors has been misrepresented.
The featured photo was originally published on the hospital’s website in a press release on March 12 (archived link).
In the accompanying statement, the hospital said it had recruited 11 specialists in various fields including oncology and pediatrics. The fresh recruits started work on March 1, it said.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo misleadingly shared online (left) and the one from the hospital’s website (right):
In response to the misleading online posts, a representative from Hanyang University Hospital told AFP on March 15 that there had not yet been a mass resignation of professors.
“I understand that they had been discussing the matter until last night but the final decision has not been made yet,” he said.
He added that the 11 professors were recruited as part of a “routine hiring” exercise unrelated to the existing professors’ collective action.