HYUNG-JIN KIM
Sun, March 3, 2024
Doctors stage a rally against the government's medical policy in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, March 3, 2024. Thousands of senior doctors rallied in Seoul on Sunday to express their support for junior doctors who have been on strike for nearly two weeks over a government plan to sharply increase the number of medical school admissions.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands of senior doctors rallied in Seoul on Sunday to express their support for junior doctors who have been on strike for nearly two weeks over a government plan to sharply increase the number of medical school admissions.
The rally came as the government said it would begin to take steps Monday to suspend the medical licenses of nearly 9,000 medical interns and residents for defying government orders to end their walkouts, which have disrupted hospital operations.
“The government’s absurd medical policy has triggered immense resistance by trainee doctors and medical students, and we doctors have become one,” Park Sung-min, a senior member of the Korea Medical Association, said in a speech at the rally. “I’m asking the government: Please, stop the threats and suppression now.”
Protesters chanted slogans, sang and held placards criticizing the government’s plan. There were were no reports of any violence at the rally.
As of Thursday night, 8,945 of the country’s 13,000 medical interns and residents were confirmed to have left their worksites, according to the Health Ministry. The government has repeatedly said they would face minimum three-month license suspensions and indictments by prosecutors if they didn’t return by Feb. 29.
The striking doctors are a fraction of South Korea’s 140,000 doctors. But they account for about 30-40% of the total doctors at some major hospitals, where they assist senior doctors during surgeries and other treatments while training. Their walkouts have subsequently caused numerous cancellations of surgeries and medical treatments at the hospitals.
Senior doctors have staged a series of rallies backing the young doctors but haven't joined the walkouts. If they also launch strikes, that would pose a major blow to South Korea's medical service.
The government wants to increase South Korea’s medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 starting next year, from the current 3,058, to better deal with the country’s rapidly aging population. Officials say South Korea’s doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest among developed countries.
But many doctors have vehemently protested the plan, saying medical schools can’t handle such a sharp increase in the number of students. They say the recruitment plan also does not address a chronic shortage of doctors in essential but low-paying specialties like pediatrics and emergency departments.
Doctors say adding too many new doctors would also result in an increase in public medical expenses since greater competition would lead to excess treatments. But critics say the doctors simply worry about receiving a lower income due to the rising number of doctors.
South Korea police launch raid on doctors' association over walkout
South Korean doctors march to protest against the government's medical policy in Seoul
Fri, March 1, 2024 By Hyunsu Yim
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean police launched a raid on Friday targeting officials of the Korean Medical Association, as authorities step up pressure to end a walkout by trainee doctors protesting against plans to reform the health system.
The raid comes ahead of a mass demonstration in Seoul planned for Sunday by doctors, after the walkout, which began on Feb. 20, disrupted major hospitals, forcing some to turn away patients and cancel surgeries and other medical procedures.
"Doctors are enraged by the government's absurd behavior," the KMA, which represents private practitioners, said in a statement after the raid on the leaders of its emergency committee.
"The government has clearly shown that doctors in South Korea cannot enjoy freedom."
It denied having encouraged the trainee doctors to resign, saying they had left their posts of their own volition.
Health ministry data showed more than two-thirds of the trainee doctors, or nearly 9,000, had ignored a government deadline to return to work by Thursday or face punishment.
They are protesting against a plan to increase medical school admissions by 2,000 starting from 2025, which the government says is vital to remedy a shortage of doctors in one of the world's fastest-ageing societies.
The young doctors say they are overworked and underpaid, however, and the priority should be to improve their pay and working conditions instead.
Seoul police investigators raided the offices of five current and former KMA officials to collect evidence from their mobile telephones and computers, the Yonhap news agency said.
The health ministry told police this week of accusations that the officials had sought to obstruct business activity and were abetting the strike as well as defying the order to return to work, the agency added.
Police in the capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During a visit to a veterans hospital in Seoul, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo pledged on Friday to ensure there was no disruption to services for veterans of the military.
The health ministry posted an order on its website urging 13 of the striking doctors to return to work or face criminal charges.
The government can order doctors back to work in case of grave risk to lives and public health.
Flouting such orders could lead to suspension of medical licences for up to a year, as well as three years in jail or a fine of 30 million won ($22,000).
($1=1,334.8500 won)
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Ed Davies and Clarence Fernandez)
South Korea Doctors Rally as Government Calls for End to Walkout
Jon Herskovitz and Sam Kim
Sat, March 2, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- South Korean doctors led thousands of protesters in Seoul on Sunday as a standoff with the government nears a third week, in one of the largest demonstrations yet for a labor action that has slowed the delivery of health care.
Protesters wore masks and carried banners with messages demanding the government scrap its plan to increase enrollment in medical schools, footage from local broadcaster MBC showed. The Korean Medical Association — the nation’s largest lobby group for physicians — said about 30,000 people are at the march.
About 70% of South Korea’s 13,000 trainee doctors have walked out in the past two weeks over the initiative. The government argues the number of medical students has not been raised for about three decades and that South Korea now has one of the most acute doctor shortages in the developed world amid a rapidly aging population.
The KMA led the rally with its leaders speaking at the podium and vowing to refuse talks until President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government backs down. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Sunday the administration would “go ahead and implement its duty” if doctors stayed off the job in violation of law, Yonhap News Agency reported. It wasn’t clear what that would entail.
Yoon has stood firm on the plan to add 2,000 spaces at medical schools from 3,058 now. His administration has indicated willingness to discuss doctors’ concerns such as low pay and long hours for trainees, and revisions to the legal system for malpractice suits. It said the walkout has led to people being turned away from understaffed emergency rooms and the cancellation of about half of surgeries.
Yoon’s approval rating climbed to 39% in a weekly tracking poll released Friday from Gallup Korea, the highest since July last year, indicating broad support among the public for his stance to hold firm. This could help his conservative People Power Party in April elections as it tries to take control of parliament from the progressive Democratic Party.
Authorities have threatened to arrest and prosecute people who refused to comply by the government order to return to work. The government is looking at suspending licenses of doctors who encouraged the labor action that it says defies medical regulations and violates the law.
Critics of the walkout contend that doctors participating in the labor action are more keen on protecting their earning power, which ranks among the top among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, rather than improving the quality of the health-care system.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Thousands of Striking Doctors in South Korea Defy Government’s Return-to-Work Deadline
Koh Ewe
Fri, March 1, 2024
Tensions continue to soar between thousands of striking South Korean doctors and the government, as a vast majority of the protesting junior residents have refused to go back to work on Friday despite threats of prosecution for their ongoing collective action and promises of immunity from penalty if they had quit their walkout by now.
Only 294 doctors out of some 9,000 striking doctors have returned to work as of Thursday night since the strike began on Feb. 20, Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters. Authorities had given an ultimatum earlier in the week, promising striking doctors that they would not be held accountable if they returned to work by Thursday evening but that the government would begin to take legal action against remaining strikers starting Friday.
The doctors are protesting a government plan to address the country’s longstanding doctor shortage by increasing the annual quota for medical students from 3,058 to 5,058 beginning in 2025. Critics say the protesting doctors are worried that the quota expansion will hurt their competitive pay, while doctors argue the plan will do little to address the poor working conditions in fields where the personnel shortages are most pressing.
As of Wednesday evening, around 10,000 residents—80% of all junior doctors—had tendered their resignations as part of the protest. Around 9,000 were on strike—a slight decrease from the previous day, per health authorities, who also noted that the number of striking doctors had decreased two days in a row.
Across 100 teaching hospitals in the country, there were 32 hospitals where more than one person has returned to work, and 10 hospitals where more than 10 have returned, Park said on Thursday, adding there are also hospitals where up to 66 doctors have resumed work.
Authorities have issued over 9,400 back-to-work orders to striking doctors, but many have avoided accepting the text message orders by simply turning off their phones and changing their phone numbers. In response, officials are now visiting the homes of trainee doctors to personally deliver the orders. The Ministry of Health has also posted back-to-work orders for about a dozen trainee doctors on the ministry website, local media reported. These steps would allow authorities to subsequently file criminal complaints with those who refuse to comply with the back-to-work orders.
Defying a back-to-work order can be punished by up to three years in prison, a 30 million won ($22,000) fine, or a minimum three-month medical license suspension.
The government has stood firm on its quota expansion plan, which remains broadly popular among the general public, with the health ministry lodging its first criminal complaint against five alleged organizers of the strike on Tuesday. On Friday, police raided several offices at the Korean Medical Association and Seoul Medical Association, which have been accused of violating medical law for their alleged role in instigating the strike.
At the same time, authorities also appear to be trying to assuage concerns among doctors about the quota expansion plan, with the health ministry announcing on Thursday that the government would add up to 1,000 medical professors at key national hospitals by 2027 in response to worries raised by doctors that increasing the intake of medical students would affect the quality of medical care and education. Meanwhile, Park said that officials had invited 94 representatives of the striking doctors to a meeting on Thursday, but only a handful of doctors showed up.
Hospitals across the country are being stretched to their limits, with some patients having their treatments postponed amid a shortage of doctors. The heads of hospitals have written emails begging doctors to return. “Your sincerity is well-delivered,” Kim Young-tae, the president of Seoul National University wrote on Wednesday. “A handful of patients suffering from high-risk diseases and incurable illnesses await you. Now, please come back.”
S. Korea police raid medical association office over walkout
AFP
Fri, March 1, 2024
Nearly 10,000 junior doctors -- about 80 percent of the trainee workforce -- walked off the job last week (Jung Yeon-je)
South Korean police said they raided the offices of the Korean Medical Association on Friday, as the government contends with a doctors' strike that has led to chaos in hospitals.
Nearly 10,000 junior doctors -- about 80 percent of the trainee workforce -- walked off the job last week. They are protesting against government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions to cope with shortages and an ageing society.
The government had set a February 29 deadline for medics to resume work or face potential legal consequences, including suspension of their medical licences and arrest.
Only 565 doctors had resumed work by the deadline, according to figures released by the health ministry.
The mass work stoppage has taken a toll on hospitals, prompting the government to raise its public health alert to the highest level.
Around half of the surgeries scheduled at 15 major hospitals have been cancelled since last week, according to the health ministry.
Under South Korean law, doctors are restricted from striking, and the government this week requested police investigate people connected to the stoppage.
Police in Seoul confirmed a raid on the Korean Medical Association (KMA) on Friday.
The health ministry also posted on its website the back-to-work orders for 13 trainee doctors, leaving their licence numbers and parts of their names visible.
"We would like to inform you that refusing to comply with the order to commence work without justifiable reasons may result in disciplinary action and criminal prosecution," the order said.
Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said in a statement released Friday: "We express our gratitude for the wise decision of the trainee doctors who have returned to the patients' side."
The KMA said its members were "enraged" by the raid and said they would continue "resisting and raising voices".
"Doctors will have to make every effort to be recognised as a free citizen in South Korea," spokesman Joo Soo-ho said.
"We apologise for any inconvenience that we may cause to the public during this process."
- Rally on Sunday -
South Korea's 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 doctor-to-population ratios among developed nations.
Doctors fear the reform will erode the quality of service and medical education, but proponents accuse medics of trying to safeguard their salaries and social status.
Junior doctors argue that the healthcare system's over-reliance on trainees is unreasonable and unfair.
Polling shows up to 75 percent of the public support the reforms.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has taken a hard line on the striking doctors, has seen his approval ratings tick up.
With legislative elections in April, and Yoon's party looking to win back a parliamentary majority, the government is unlikely to compromise quickly, analysts said.
The KMA has accused the government of using "intimidation tactics" to try to force doctors back to work, and said it was turning the country into a "totalitarian state".
The medical association will hold a rally in Seoul on Sunday, with local reports saying around 25,000 people are expected to join.
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