Doctors are currently divided, with hardliners accusing moderates of betrayal for resuming their work and condemning them as traitors.Park Dan, a hardliner and the leader of the Korea Intern and Resident Association (KIRA), criticized Lim Hyun-taek, the president of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), calling for his resignation. "President Lim doesn't represent trainee doctors who risked their careers by resigning from their place of work or medical school students who are on leaves of absence," he said in a statement posted on social media.KIRA is an organization of junior doctors, while the KMA represents senior doctors. The president of the KMA has rejected Park Dan's call for his resignation.Amid these developments, patients are bearing the brunt, as the deepening rift among doctors' groups is likely to worsen the protracted medical crisis in the country.The Yoon Suk Yeol government is chiefly responsible for the medical service vacuum, having introduced a plan to increase medical school admis sions earlier this year without prior consultation with doctors.Therefore, it is understandable that doctors are furious, given they were excluded from the decision-making process for a change that will significantly impact their lives.However, doctors cannot avoid criticism for their role in the current medical crisis, as their inflexibility and reluctance to make concessions have hindered efforts to reach an agreement with the government.The two sides are facing off against each other, and as a result, patients' lives are being put at risk.Doctors, especially the hardliners, ignored the pleas from patients and instead rallied support from the doctors community to continue their struggle until their demands were met.A rift developed among junior doctors when some trainees chose to return to work and treat patients.Irritated by the doctors who returned to work, hardliners posted a list of emergency room (ER) doctors, including their names, on a restricted membership website. They labeled these ER doctors as "collaborators" with the government.They demonized fellow doctors, posting gossip and rumors about them on the website. The website's unnamed operator announced that the "collaborators' list" would be updated with more details on Sept. 21. The operator and members of the website are believed to be doctors themselves.The KMA took the case seriously. The group urged the operator and members of the website to stop bullying fellow doctors."We understand that they compiled the list and made it public because they are so desperate. We fully understand their position, but attacking their colleagues just because they have different ideas is not desirable," it said in a statement released on Tuesday, calling on the members to show restraint.The blacklist reveals a division within the medical community, with two distinct groups of doctors holding opposing views on whether trainee doctors should return to work. Hardliners, such as KIRA leader Park, vowed to fight to the end to reverse the Yoon governm ent's course of action, so that the plan to increase the medical school admissions quota can be completely scrapped. They urged other doctors to join their cause to strengthen their collective voice in the policymaking process.Meanwhile, doctors with more moderate views have returned to work, driven by their commitment to saving patients' lives after learning about the plight of ER patients who were forced to move from one hospital to another in search of treatment. Several understaffed hospitals had been unable to admit the patients.The focus here is not on identifying villains or heroes. The real issue is whether there were flaws in the process that led to each side's decisions and how those decisions were implemented.In a democratic society, individuals are free to express their own opinions, and diverse viewpoints are natural because people think differently. Respecting differing opinions is a cornerstone of democracy. While trainee doctors can encourage their peers to join their cause for a unified voice, coercing others into action is unacceptable in a democracy. Everyone's free will must be respected, and the hardliners have overstepped their bounds.Source: Yonhap News Agency