Escalation of doctors’ strike worries SKorea
SEOUL: South Korea’s health minister on Tuesday warned of a threat to the lives of patients after medical professors said they might join striking junior doctors in a threeweeklong standoff that has plunged the East Asian country’s health care sector into chaos.
Thousands of physicians in training walked off the job on February 20 to protest government plans to sharply increase the number of doctors, which it says is essential to combat shortages and serve South Korea’s rapidly aging population. Doctors say it would erode service quality.
The government has ordered the doctors to return or face legal action and has moved to suspend the medical licenses of those who refuse to comply, while offering incentives and setting up a hotline on Tuesday to support anyone who defy the walkout.
This week, medical school professors at one of the country’s top universities said they would resign en masse next week unless the government found a “reasonable breakthrough” to end the standoff.
“I express serious concern over the decision,” Health Minister
Cho Kyoo-hong said on Tuesday, urging professors — who are also senior doctors in many hospitals — to help their striking colleagues return to work, not join them at the barricades.
“It will pose a threat to health and lives of patients,” he added.
But the Medical Professors Association of Korea said the senior doctors were working hard to help hospitals provide essential services in the face of the work stoppages.
The professors are “hoping for a quick end” to the conflict, it added, but warned that unless the government came to the table “unconditionally” for talks, more doctors might join the walkouts.
Seoul has mobilized military doctors and millions of dollars in state reserves to ease the situation.
The government is pushing to admit 2,000 more students to medical schools annually from next year to address what it calls one of the lowest doctorto-population ratios among developed nations.
Doctors say they fear the reform would erode the quality of service and medical education, but proponents accuse medics of trying to safeguard their salaries and social status.
Under South Korean law, doctors are restricted from striking, and the Health Ministry has asked police to investigate people connected to the work stoppage.
The plan enjoys broad public support, but a new poll by local media found 34 percent of people wanted the government to negotiate to end the standoff.