Photo: Collected
A total of 529 medical professors of the South Korean hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University (SNU) are planning to stage a walkout on Monday (17 June) to protest against a state medical reform, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, adding that approximately 55% professors will join the strike.
"We are not suspending all treatments entirely. We are only halting treatments for patients who can receive care at other hospitals or whose conditions will not be adversely affected by a temporary delay in treatment," the SNU emergency committee of medical professors was quoted as saying.
The country's health institutions will continue providing care for patients with “critical or rare” diseases, the committee added.
"The actual number of treatments will decrease by 40 percent due to the walkout," it added.
The country's government, for its part, called on SNU hospitals leadership not to green-light the walkout and to make professors compensate for losses, the media reported.
The action comes a day before a nationwide doctors’ strike organized by the KMA on Tuesday, Yonhap said.
It is "inappropriate for the KMA to make policy demands to the government under the condition of an illegal walkout," the South Korean Health Ministry was quoted by Yonhap as saying.
The walkout and strike follow the government finalizing plans to increase the admission quota for medical schools by 1,500 students last month.
In February, the government announced plans to enroll 2,000 additional students in medical schools this year, which is 60% more than usual, in a bid to address shortages of doctors. The news led to a massive walkout of medics in protest. The KMA believes that it is impossible to solve the problems by simply increasing the number of places in universities, and it is necessary, first of all, to radically improve the working conditions of doctors.
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