Trainee doctors suspend strike, but not return to work

The doors of the Korean Medical Association office in Seoul are closed, Sunday. Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

Trainee doctors decided to suspend their two-week-long strike Monday, but refused to return to work immediately, according to the Korean Interns and Residents Association (KIRA), Sunday.

They plan to hold an online meeting of all KIRA members at 1 p.m. today to decide on any future course of action.

“Many people think that our collective action is over, but we are at the beginning of our fight. We will not return to work Monday,” KIRA President Park Ji-hyun said in an internal notice. “Instead, we will hold a meeting and decide when and how to return to work after a thorough discussion.”

Initially, trainee doctors were expected to return to hospitals at 7 a.m. Monday, but it appears that they decided not to do so and instead organize briefing sessions as a growing number of KIRA members oppose ending the strike.

She also explained the reason behind her decision to temporarily suspend the strike. “If we continue to strike, this will eventually lead us to defeat. We must be not swayed by emotion and instead we need to come up with cool-headed and meticulous measures to achieve our cause.”

Park then said KIRA members will return to work after the organization receives a written promise from the government that it won't push ahead with its plan to increase the medical student quota and establish a public medical school.

The KIRA and a taskforce representing medical school students held a marathon meeting Saturday to decide on whether they should join the agreement between the country's largest doctors' association and the government over the latter's controversial medical reform plan.

The KMA, and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and government officials, agreed that the former would end its walkout Friday. The KIRA and the medical school students' groups were discussing whether to end the strike, when they would return to work and how they could monitor the government compliance.

Since Aug. 21, thousands of trainee doctors working at general hospitals began the strike to protest the government medical reform plan that included increasing the quota for medical students, establishing a new public medical school and giving medical insurance coverage to those seeking traditional Korean medicine treatment.

The KMA, which represents 130,000 doctors across the country, joined the strike but agreed to return to work after the administration backed down and promised to put its medical reform plans on hold.

However, the young doctors' group, which led the walkout, and participating medical students strongly opposed the deal made by the KMA and the government, claiming they were not consulted, and demanded a proper explanation of how the deal was reached from KMA President Choi Dae-zip.

Park evaluated that the group actions so far were meaningful and have brought about a huge change.

“We stopped the bill being pushed forward and stipulated the need to renegotiate from the beginning. We are not satisfied, but we have shown that young doctors can unite to discuss and resolve medical issues at any time,” she continued. “Even if we halt our collective action at this point, we should use our anger to solve fundamental problems in the medical community. We will never stop.”