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| Korean Medical Association President Choi Dae-zip, center, speaks during a news conference at the association's office in Seoul, Saturday, warning of a doctors' general strike nationwide. / Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
A doctors' association has announced a plan to go on a general strike on Aug. 14 in protest against the government's decision to increase admission quotas at medical schools, plus other thorny issues.
The planned strike by doctors nationwide is raising concerns that citizens could experience inconvenience in receiving proper medical services.
The Korea Medical Association (KMA) warned on Saturday that doctors across the country would go on strike if the government refused to accept the medical sector's requirements.
The requirements include withdrawing plans to increase admission quotas at medical schools and establish a new public medical school, and stopping a move to introduce a remote medical service.
"The government should be engaged in an official consultation with the medical sector immediately," a KMA official said. "If the government fails to improve the situation by noon on Aug. 12, doctors nationwide will go on a general strike on Aug. 14."
The warning came after the Moon Jae-in government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea confirmed a plan to expand admission quotas at medical schools by 4,000 over the next 10 years, starting in 2022, during a policy coordination meeting held on July 23.
The government and the ruling party also decided to open a public medical school in North Jeolla Province in 2024, saying these decisions were designed to broaden the reach of health care services.
Rep. Cho Jeong-sik, who heads the DPK's policy committee, said his party would give full efforts to complete necessary legislative procedures as soon as possible to implement the plans.
The KMA criticized the plans, calling them "hasty and unilateral" decisions.
The association said the government had overlooked the importance of medical education and the increase in healthcare costs when deciding to expand medical school admission quotas.
Instead, the association called on the government to form a consultative group to discuss measures with the medical sector to improve medical services and resolve regional imbalance.
The association also urged the government to come up with measures to raise competitiveness of public medical facilities, including provincial medical centers, and improve the working environments of medical personnel. It called on the government to retract the plan to open a new public medical school.
With regard to the government's push to introduce a remote medical service, the KMA claimed face-to-face checkups and treatments are "a cardinal principle of medical services."
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