Nearly 12,000 trainee doctors from 100 hospitals have resigned over the government's reform plans.
South Korea has announced that it will send military doctors and health center doctors to hospitals hit by a weeks-long strike by medical trainees over government reform proposals.
About 20 military doctors and 138 public health doctors will be stationed in 20 hospitals for four weeks, Health Minister Cho Kyohon said at a meeting on Sunday.
According to a Defense Ministry press conference, only a fraction of the approximately 2,400 military doctors who have been requested to help so far.
About 12,000 trainee doctors at 100 hospitals went on strike on February 20 over the government's plan to increase capacity in medical schools to address population shortages caused by a rapidly aging population.
As a result of this measure, some hospitals had to turn away patients and delay medical treatment.
Authorities tried to persuade the doctors to return to work by warning that their medical licenses could be suspended, but the threat appears to have had little effect.
The Ministry of Health announced on Monday that it had sent administrative notices, the first step in suspending medical licenses, to thousands of trainee doctors who failed to comply with specific orders asking them to return to hospitals.
“As of March 8th [notifications] More than 4,900 medical trainees have been dispatched,” Chung Byung-wan, director of the Ministry of Health's Health and Medical Policy Division, told reporters.
The government previously warned doctors that their medical licenses could be suspended for three months, a penalty that could delay their qualifications by at least a year.
Chun urged them to return to their patients.
“The government will consider the situation and protect trainees if they return to work before the administrative measures are completed,'' he said, adding that if they return to work now, they may be able to avoid punishment. suggested that.
“The government will not give up on dialogue. The door to dialogue is always open, and the government respects and listens to the opinions of the medical community as a partner in medical reform,” he added.
The government has the power to order doctors to return to work if it determines there is a serious risk to life or public health.
The government wants to increase the annual intake of medical schools by 2,000 students from next year to address the shortage, but doctors argue that simply increasing the number of medical students will not address concerns about pay and working conditions. There is.
In a survey released by Yonhap News last week, 84% of respondents supported increasing the number of doctors, and 43% said doctors who went on strike should be severely punished.
