HUNDREDS of doctors in South Korea protested in front of the Presidential Office in Seoul last Sunday to oppose the government’s plan to increase the number of students enrolling in medical schools.
The South Korean government plans to raise medical school admissions to 2,000 by the 2025 academic year, aiming to increase the number of doctors to ten thousand by 2035.
Before the protest, doctors from various regions of South Korea held a meeting led by the Korean Medical Association to urge the government to cancel the plan.
According to the association, having more students would only lower the quality of medical education in South Korea and would not address the country’s medical resource imbalance.
But the government will continue with the implementation of this policy and will take appropriate actions regarding the resignation of doctors from public and private hospitals.
The protest, however, prompted major South Korean hospitals to to cancel surgeries and other treatment procedures due to protesting doctors.
The walkout of nearly ten thousand doctors has lasted almost a week, and this raised concerns that more patients may miss the best time for their treatment as the stalemate persists.
The South Korean government believes that more medical workers will be needed in the country in the future. However, according to doctors there will no such shortage due to the declining birth rate.
