Korean Doctor Strike to Get Worse as Medical Professors Begin to Resign and Cut Care
Korean doctors are now going to ramp up their use of denying care to patients as leverage against the government:
The monthlong confrontation between the government and doctors was feared to worsen further as medical school professors were to tender mass resignations and cut back on patient care starting this week, while the government was to suspend the licenses of striking trainee doctors, officials said Sunday.
More than 90 percent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors have been on strike in the form of mass resignations for about a month to protest the government’s decision to increase the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 seats from the current 3,058 starting next year to enhance health care services in remote areas, as well as essential but less popular medical disciplines.
Joining the collective action, professors of medical schools nationwide will begin to submit their resignations Monday and will reduce their weekly work hours to 52 hours by adjusting surgeries and other medical treatments, according to the national medical school professors’ council.
Starting April 1, they will also “minimize” medical services for outpatients to focus on seriously ill patients and emergency patient care.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but Korean doctors have to be one of the most selfish groups in South Korea.
Sue them to pay back every penny if they used any government help to become doctors.
It’s not usual for me to agree with a MAGA trumpbot, but in this case I agree. Hit them where it hurts the most, let the hospitals or patients take legal action, and hit them where it hurts the most – in their private pocketbooks. Since you can’t just fire them all at once, pick out and target them randomly and hurt them financially.
In regards to the latest medical crisis, Yoon has thrown in the towel.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/03/119_371276.html
The government is aiming for flexibility in addressing the prolonged conflict with doctors regarding the medical school quota hike policy, the prime minister’s office said on Sunday. It noted that relevant administrative efforts have already commenced to facilitate constructive dialogue.
The move came as President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to draw up what he described as “flexible measures” in response to the government’s decision to suspend the licenses of striking trainee doctors.
The president also ordered the establishment of an official consultation panel to facilitate dialogue with the doctors’ community as soon as possible.