No major service disruptions reported during doctors' strike
Severance Hospital in Shinchon, Seoul, bustles with visitors Friday despite resident doctors and interns going on strike earlier in the day to demand the government scrap its plan to increase the number of students at medical schools. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
No major service disruptions were reported at Korea's hospitals Friday after doctors and interns went on a 24-hour strike to protest a government plan to raise admission quotas at medical schools.
The action was expected to affect patients in intensive care units and emergency rooms where most of the doctors in training work. The strike will last until 7 a.m. Saturday.
At Seoul National University Hospital, a patient waiting area was busier than usual, but it didn't create a major delay.
“Although a '10-minute delay in counseling' appeared on a notice board announcing the expected waiting time, it is not that unusual a situation,” an SNUH official told Yonhap News Agency.
One patient waiting for treatment said: “I don't worry about the strike because the professor who is in charge of my treatment is working today anyway.”
According to the Korea Intern Resident Association (KIRA), a group that represents interns and resident doctors here, nearly 70 percent of the group's 16,000 members joined the strike.
Several hospital officials said full-time doctors and professors were replacing those on strike in emergency rooms.
However, hospitals expect waiting times for outpatient treatment will be longer if there is a surge of patients because resident doctors usually support professors giving this care.
Lee Dong-yeon, an orthopedic professor at SNUH, said: “It may be inconvenient because patient waiting times can be a little longer as some of the interns and residents are on strike. But we have taken measures to ensure that there are no major disruptions in medical treatment and we will do our best to put the safety of patients first.”
The striking interns and resident doctors gathered in Yeouido, Seoul, urging the government to reconsider its plan to increase admission quotas.
“We urge the government to listen to the take opinions from doctors in the field into account when making public health policy,” the protesters said in a statement.
Korea is experiencing a shortage of doctors in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To tackle the problem, the government is pushing to train an extra 4,000 doctors over the next 10 years, but there has been a strong backlash from licensed doctors to the plan. Another strike is scheduled for Aug. 14.