The Korean Medical Association opposes the illegal attempt to implement the physician assistant (PA) system in Korea. The exact meaning of 'PA' in Korea at present time is 'Unlicensed Assistant (UA)' since it is not legally established in our healthcare system. Thus, PA in Korea refers to unlawful, unqualified, auxiliary personnel for medical practitioners. There have been several issues with the illegal PA system in Korea facing medicosocial conflicts and crisis. Patients want to be diagnosed and treated by medically-educated, licensed and professionally trained physicians not PAs. In clinical settings, PAs deprive the training and educational opportunities of trainees such as interns and residents. Recently, there have been several attempts, by CEO or directors of major hospitals in Korea, to adopt and legalize this system without general consensus from medical professional associations and societies. Without such consensus, this illegal implementation of PA system will create new and additional very serious medical crises due to unlawful medical, educational, professional conflicts and safety issues in medical practice. Before considering the implementation of the PA system, there needs to be a convincing justification by solving the fundamental problems beforehand, such as the collapsed medical delivery system, protection and provision of optimal education program and training environment of trainees, burnout from excessive workloads of physicians with very low compensational system and poor conditions for working and education, etc.

中文翻译：

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韩国非法医师助理制度造成的医疗社会冲突和危机。

韩国医学会反对在韩国非法推行医师助理（PA）制度。目前，“PA”在韩国的确切含义是“无执照助理（UA）”，因为它在我们的医疗保健系统中尚未合法建立。因此，韩国的PA是指非法、不合格的执业辅助人员。韩国的非法 PA 制度存在一些问题，面临医疗社会冲突和危机。患者希望由受过医学教育、有执照和经过专业培训的医生而不是 PA 进行诊断和治疗。在临床环境中，PA 剥夺了实习生和住院医师等受训人员的培训和教育机会。最近，韩国各大医院的首席执行官或董事多次尝试采用这一制度并使之合法化，但没有得到医学专业协会和学会的普遍共识。如果没有这样的共识，这种非法实施PA制度将会因非法医疗、教育、专业冲突和医疗实践中的安全问题而造成新的、额外的非常严重的医疗危机。在考虑实施PA制度之前，需要有令人信服的理由，提前解决根本问题，例如崩溃的医疗服务系统、保护和提供学员最佳的教育计划和培训环境、医生过度工作量带来的职业倦怠等。薪酬体系极低、工作和教育条件差等。