South Korean Doctors Protest for More Medical Personnel

Jakarta – South Korea ordered trainee doctors back to work on Monday after they resigned to protest medical training reforms, with the government looking at using military medics to cope with shortfalls.

South Korea says it has one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed countries, and the government is pushing hard to increase the number of doctors, partly to help a fast-ageing society.

But doctors have voiced fierce opposition to a new government plan to sharply raise medical school admissions, claiming it would hurt the quality of service provision. 

Critics say doctors are mainly concerned the reform could erode their salaries and social status.

On Monday, despite government threats of legal action, hundreds of trainee doctors handed in their resignations and were set to stop work from Tuesday.

But the government said it had "issued treatment maintenance orders for all trainee doctors", Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said at a press briefing, referring to a legal measure to prevent work stoppages by medical practitioners.

Under South Korean medical laws, doctors – who are considered essential workers – are restricted from undertaking mass work stoppages.

"I implore trainee doctors to not turn their backs on patients," he said, adding the government would be inspecting hospitals to check whether doctors had joined the strike.

As information, the training reform calls for a 65 percent increase in the number of medical students admitted to universities from 2025.

The plan is popular with the public, who experts say are tired of long waiting times at hospitals, with a recent Gallup poll in Korea showing more than 75 percent of respondents supporting it.

However, the plan has been met with strong opposition from doctors, with the Korean Medical Association saying that the threat of legal action from the government is akin to a "witch hunt" and claiming that the plan will create a Cuban-style socialist medical system.

Vice Minister Park said that the plan is necessary for South Korea's rapidly aging society, as doctors will be overwhelmed by the enormous demand one day.

"Hospitals are already having difficulty finding doctors at present, and problems accessing medical services have occurred repeatedly," Park added.

More than 700 trainee doctors have resigned so far, the government said.

The Defense Ministry said it would open the emergency wards of military hospitals to the public if the doctors remain on strike, and consider sending military doctors to civilian hospitals to help cover the shortage.