More than 1,600 doctors went on strike in South Korea on Tuesday, causing delays in surgeries and hospitals refusing to accept patients.
Young doctors are protesting against government plans to bring more trained doctors into the system.
The government wants to increase internships in medical schools because South Korea has one of the lowest doctor-to-patient ratios among major economies.
But doctors rule out further competition, observers say.
South Korea’s healthcare system is highly privatized, with most procedures tied to insurance payments, and more than 90% of hospitals are private.
Doctors in this country have some of the highest salaries in the world. According to his 2022 data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the average specialist in public hospitals earns an annual salary of almost $200,000 (£159,000).
Salary well above the national average.
However, there are currently only 2.5 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, the second lowest rate among OECD countries after Mexico.
‘Increasing the number of doctors means increasing competition and reducing doctors’ income…That’s why we oppose proposals to increase the supply of doctors,” said Professor Kwon Seung-man, a public health expert at Seoul National University.
The country faces a significant shortage of doctors in remote areas and in specialized fields such as paediatrics and obstetrics, which are considered less lucrative than fields such as dermatology and plastic surgery.
According to the country’s Ministry of Health, about 6,500 interns and expatriates, about half of the expatriate workforce, filed for termination on Monday.
Of this group, about 1,600 doctors did not show up for work. The organizers of the protest, the Korean Medical Association and the Korean Interns and Residents Association, called on their members on Tuesday to completely halt their activities.
While the government ordered doctors to return to work, President Yun Seok-Yeong criticized the campaign for “holding people’s lives and health hostage.
“He said he was aware of cases in which cancer surgeries had already been postponed because of the strike.
South Korean media also reported cases in which patients were forced to be discharged or transferred to other hospitals. The core of emergency room staff is made up of 4,444 residents, and Yonhap News reported that up to 37% of doctors at Seoul’s largest hospital could be affected.
Park Min-soo, the second vice minister of health, told reporters earlier this week that he was “deeply disappointed by the situation in which young doctors are refusing to work.”
On Tuesday, he said the government would resort to legal measures to end the strike. Authorities have legal authority to revoke doctors’ licenses to practice if their actions endanger the public’s health care.
The country has previously prosecuted doctors who went on strike. The government announced on Tuesday that it would take action against two executives of the Korean Medical Association.