MEDICAL interns and residents in South Korea have gathered in the city streets for about a month now in protest of a government plan to increase medical school admissions as well as difficult working conditions such as low pay and long hours at work.
From approximately 8,000 trainee doctors, their numbers soared to almost 12,000 in a few weeks time, since they started the mass demonstrations on February 21.
Officials set a deadline for the junior doctors to end the strike action by February 29, but most of them ignored government pleas to return to work, causing hundreds of surgeries and treatments to get canceled in hospitals.
At the heart of the ongoing uproar was a government plan announced last month to admit 2,000 more students in medical schools starting in 2025, which would bring the total to 5,000 per year.
Officials said the plan aims to address South Korea’s rapidly aging population and pointed out that its doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest in the developed world.
The protesting junior doctors demanded changes in the country’s healthcare system such as staffing, adjusting prices of essential medical treatments, as well as establishing a proper infrastructure to accommodate large numbers of medical students.
An estimated 1,000 trainee doctors have resigned since last month while senior medics are threatening to follow suit with a mass resignation if the issue remains unsolved.
