Thousands of striking South Korean trainee doctors have ignored an ultimatum to return to work and continue to protest against government plans to increase enrollment in medical schools.
South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare said the strike had caused hundreds of surgeries and medical treatments to be postponed or canceled, slowing down operations in the country’s hospitals.
Medical interns and residents had until Thursday to end their strike, but the deadline passed without any resolution. The striking doctors began their strike about two weeks ago and are continuing despite the risk of prosecution and the loss of their medical licenses.
The problem is that the government plans to admit an additional 2,000 medical school applicants next year, increasing the number of new doctors nationwide to 10,000 by 2035.
Officials say increasing the number of doctors is necessary to address South Korea’s aging population, which has the lowest doctor-to-population ratio among developed countries.
Strikers say the plan to recruit new students is unsustainable because universities do not have the capacity to accommodate and educate so many new students. They say the plan fails to address physician shortages in low-wage but important specialties such as emergency medicine and pediatrics.
Some critics say the striking doctors are simply worried about declining income as new doctors flood the field.
Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo joined the negotiations on Thursday and spent three hours meeting with the strikers, but to no avail. Of the 94 trainee doctors officially invited, only five or six were present.
As of Wednesday evening, some 9,076 of the country’s 13,000 medical interns and residents had not yet returned to work, according to the health ministry.
“We have already said that if they come back today, we will not hold them responsible for leaving their workplace,” Park Min-soo said at a news conference. “Doctors serve patients, and patients are anxiously waiting for you. This is not Ways to protest against the government.”
Officials said that because Friday is a holiday in South Korea, formal measures will begin on March 4, when doctors who missed the return-to-work order will start receiving notices about their license revocations and have an opportunity to respond.
Information for this report was provided in part by Reuters and The Associated Press.
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