Suspension of the medical license of protesting doctors in South Korea has begun.
The South Korean government announced the beginning of the process of suspending the medical license of more than 4,900 new doctors who recently quit their jobs in protest against the authorities’ move to increase the education quota in the field of medicine.
AFP reported that “Chun Byungwang” from South Korea’s Ministry of Health officials in a conversation with reporters announced that the government has issued administrative warnings to trainee doctors who have violated and defied the order to return to work, and since March 8, this administrative warning has been issued for more than 4900 of them have been sent.
On March 14, following a massive strike by South Korean medical trainees who ignored the government’s deadline to end the protests, Seoul threatened to suspend the protesters’ medical licenses.
The strike of about 9,000 medical interns on February 20 led to the cancellation of several surgeries and treatment procedures, as well as disrupting the operation of hospital emergency units.
In response to these protests, South Korean Health Minister Cho Kyohong announced that officials will visit hospitals and if doctors do not return to work, they will be dealt with according to regulations.
The doctors who went on strike are a part of South Korea’s 140,000-strong medical community, but this section represents 40% of the total number of doctors in some of the country’s major hospitals. Thousands of doctors took to the streets of Seoul yesterday in a massive protest organized by the Korean Medical Association. The protesting doctors say that the government should first take care of doctors’ salaries and working conditions, and then increase the admission of medical students.
According to South Korean regulations, doctors are prohibited from striking. The government of this country says that the decision to increase the number of students admitted to medical schools by 2000 from 2025 is mandatory and the reason for this is the increase in the elderly population and also the mismatch of the number of doctors compared to patients. Seoul has 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people, making South Korea one of the countries with the smallest medical community among developed countries.