A doctor of traditional Korean medicine recently failed to overturn the suspension of his medical license for reusing disposable multineedles.

The Seoul Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit filed by the doctor, who sought to reverse the Health Ministry’s decision to suspend his license, according to media reports Monday.

The doctor had his license suspended for one month by the ministry after it was discovered that he had reused sterilized disposable multineedles on 11 patients between March 2017 and December 2018.

In response, the doctor filed a lawsuit to reinstate his license, arguing that he had thoroughly sterilized the needles and reused them only once, without causing any health problems for the patients.

However, the court sided with the Health Ministry, ruling that the doctor’s actions constituted “unethical medical practice” under the Medical Service Act. It stated that reusing disposable multineedles, which measure between 0.25 and 0.5 millimeters in length, carries a risk of infection, and sterilization alone cannot fully eliminate that risk.

The plaintiff also argued that the penalty was excessive, but the court dismissed his claim, emphasizing that public health, the maintenance of medical order and the ethical responsibility of medical professionals outweighed any disadvantages the doctor might face due to the suspension.