2024-03-25 23:35:08
Seoul, South Korea
Senior doctors at major South Korean hospitals began resigning en masse on Monday to support interns and residents, who have been on strike for five weeks over a government plan to dramatically increase medical school places.
The protest by senior doctors was not likely to immediately worsen the functioning of the hospitals because they said they would continue working even following handing in their resignations. However, the chances of resolving the dispute quickly were also slim, as the doctors’ action came following President Yoon Suk Yeol called for negotiations with the doctors and pointed to a possible reduction in punitive measures once morest the doctors. young doctors on strike.
Some 12,000 medical trainees and residents face imminent suspension of their licenses for refusing to end their strike, which has forced the cancellation of hundreds of surgeries and other treatments at their hospitals.
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They oppose the government’s plan to increase places in the country’s medical schools by two-thirds, saying that schools cannot handle such a sharp increase and that it would harm South Korean medical services in the long run. However, officials say more doctors are urgently needed due to a rapidly aging population and its doctor-to-population ratio among the lowest in the developed world.
In a meeting Sunday with Han Dong-hoon, the ruling party leader, representatives of medical professors and doctors from regarding 40 university hospitals — where the doctors in training worked — expressed support for the strike and said the plan of the government would “collapse our country’s medical system,” Kim Chang-soo, leader of the universities’ emergency committee, said Monday.
Kim described Yoon’s approach as a positive step, but said the fight between doctors and the government will not be resolved unless the government withdraws its plan.
Kim hoped that doctors and universities would maintain their plans for voluntary resignations and reduce their work hours to 52 a week, the legal maximum allowed in a week. Senior doctors have taken on heavy workloads since their less experienced colleagues left hospitals, observers say.
Striking trainee doctors make up less than 10% of South Korea’s 140,000 doctors. But in large hospitals they represent between 30 and 40% of the doctors, they assist in surgeries and care for admitted patients.
Opinion polls indicate that a majority of South Koreans support the government’s initiative to train more doctors, and critics say that doctors, one of the highest-paid professions in South Korea, are worried regarding earning less if the number of doctors increases. doctors.
Authorities say more doctors are needed to correct a deep-rooted lack of professionals in rural areas and in essential but lower-paid specialties. However, doctors say the newly recruited students would also try to work in the capital area and in higher-paying fields such as plastic surgery and dermatology. They claim the government’s plan would also cause doctors to carry out unnecessary interventions due to increased competition.
This story was originally published March 25, 2024 8:17 AM.
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