Why are doctors on strike in South Korea, what is the government doing, how are patients being treated?

Doctors have gone on strike in South Korea. The doctors going on strike are protesting against the government’s decision to recruit doctors through new medical colleges. About 8,940 medical trainees and residents have walked off their workplaces in protest, disrupting operations at South Korea’s major hospitals and threatening to overwhelm the country’s overall medical service. Now, officials warn they have until Thursday to return to work or face license suspension and prosecution.

Why are the doctors on strike?

The government plans to raise South Korea’s annual medical school admission limit to 2,000 from the current 3,058. The enrollment plan aims to add 10,000 doctors by 2035 to deal with the country’s rapidly aging population. Officials say South Korea has 2.1 physicians per 1,000 people – far below the developed world average of 3.7. Striking training doctors say schools cannot handle the sudden increase in medical students. They predict that greater competition will lead doctors to treat more than necessary – thereby increasing public medical spending – and, like current medical students, most of the additionally recruited medical students will also go into higher-paying, popular specialties such as plastic surgery and dermatology. Will try to work in businesses. This means the country’s long-standing shortage of physicians in essential but low-paid areas such as pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency departments will remain unchanged.

Impact of strike on patients

The walkout caused hospitals to cancel many planned surgeries and other medical treatments. An elderly woman, who was undergoing cardiac arrest, was reportedly declared dead on Friday. Seven hospitals had turned him away, citing shortage of medical staff or other reasons related to the walkout. In some major hospitals, junior doctors constitute about 30%–40% of the total doctors, playing a role in supporting senior doctors during surgeries and dealing with internal patients. The strikers are among the country’s 13,000 medical residents and trainees, and they work and train in about 100 hospitals across South Korea.