South Korea’s major doctors’ group said Sunday that it will take one day off from work en masse and stage a rally next week in protest of the medical school quota hike, amid a lingering strike by junior doctors that has lasted nearly four months.
The Korea Medical Association (KMA) said the decision was made after the vote result on the plan showed “overwhelming support” for the collective action, with voter turnout coming in at 63.3 percent, out of some 70,800 KMA members that took part in the voting.
The single-day walkout will take place June 18.
The KMA, mostly consisting of doctors who run local clinics, and medical professors, carried out the vote from Tuesday through Friday to determine whether to take action in response to the government’s announcement late last month on the decision to raise the medical school enrollment quota by 1,500 for the 2025 admission.
The KMA carried out the vote from Tuesday through Friday. It said more than 90 percent of the participants showed support for a “strong pr
otest” against the government’s decision.
The KMA said it plans to decide whether it will continue the collective action after June 18, depending on the response from the government.
But it remains to be seen how many of the doctors will actually join the walkout. The number of participating doctors turned out in the single digits during a previous clash over a medical school quota hike in 2020.
“We intend to form a dedicated committee for the medical community’s protest and employ every possible method to launch a comprehensive resistance,” Lim Hyun-taek, who heads the KMA, said.
The latest collective action came after the government finalized the admission quota hike of some 1,500 for medical schools late last month, marking the first such increase in 27 years.
About 12,000 trainee doctors at general hospitals have left their worksites in protest of the government’s decision to raise the number of medical school seats, causing disruptions in services at major hospitals.
In an apparent effort to persua
de trainee doctors to return to hospitals, the government has recently allowed them to seek jobs at other medical clinics or go back to their training hospitals by withdrawing a return-to-work order and suspending administrative steps to punish them.
But junior doctors were mostly seen reluctant to return to their worksites despite the gesture.
Medical professors were also seen joining the move in solidarity with junior doctors, with those from four hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University voting to launch a walkout later this month, calling for the government to fully withdraw administrative steps to punish trainee doctors.
Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo expressed “deep regret” over the looming additional walkout by doctors.
“It is deeply regrettable that some officials and organizations from the medical community are mentioning additional illegal collective action at the expense of people’s lives,” Han told reporters.
“Such actions not only place heavy burdens on the emergency m
edical system but also scar society,” he added. “I believe that the silent majority of doctors will not support the illegal collective action.”
Han also said junior doctors returning to hospitals will not face any disadvantages, including administrative measures.
Amid slim chances of talks between the medical community and the government, pundits anticipate the country’s medical services may face further disruptions should the KMA go ahead with the planned walkout.
Others, however, suggest that even if the KMA initiates the walkout, local clinics are unlikely to show full support, as less than 10 percent joined the previous strike in 2020.
Source: Yonhap News Agency