The South Korean government yesterday warned thousands of striking doctors to return to work immediately or face legal action after their collective walkouts caused cancelations of surgeries and disrupted other hospital operations.
More than 8,800 junior doctors — 71 percent of the trainee workforce — have quit, said Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo, part of a spiraling protest against government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions.
Officials say they want to increase the nationwide medical school admissions cap by 2,000 from next year to brace for South Korea’s rapidly aging population, but doctors’ groups say the changes would hurt service provision and education quality.
Photo: Reuters
The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare said that authorities have received 58 public complaints over the walkouts, mostly regarding indefinite delays of surgeries and cancelations of other medical treatments.
Park said that 7,813 trainee doctors had not shown up for work — an almost fivefold increase from the first day of the action on Monday — despite the government ordering many of them to return to their hospitals.
“A collective action holding the lives and safety of the people cannot be justified for whatever reason,” South Korean Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min told a news conference with other top officials.
Lee said the government issued an official order for striking doctors to return to work, adding that it would sternly deal with the doctors’ walkouts in line with the medical law and other regulations.
South Korea’s medical law allows the government to issue such back-to-work orders to doctors and other medical personnel when there are grave concerns about public health. If they refuse to abide by the order, they could face up to three years in prison or 30 million won (US$22,488) in fines, a punishment that would also lead to the revocation of their medical licenses.
South Korea’s general hospitals rely heavily on trainees for emergency operations and surgeries, and local reports said cancer patients and expectant mothers needing caesarean sections had seen procedures canceled or delayed, with scores of cases causing “damage,” he said.
Hong Jae-ryun, a brain cancer patient in his 50s from Daegu, said that his chemotherapy had been postponed without clear future dates due to the current situation, even though the cancer has spread to his lungs and liver.
“It’s absurd. In the midst of the conflict between the government and doctors, what can powerless patients say? It feels like a betrayal,” Hong said. “When there is no one to trust and rely on other than doctors, it seems excessive to handle things in this manner.”
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