South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol offered a compromise on Monday, nearly six weeks after doctors began striking over the government’s plan to admit more students to medical colleges.
If the medical community wants to argue for reducing the size of the increase, it is only right for them to suggest a unified proposal to the government, with a clear and scientific basis, and not take collective action.
Yoon addressed the country ahead of the 10 April parliamentary election, stating that if the doctor groups “bring a more reasonable and rational measure, we can discuss it any time.”
Thousands of junior doctors and interns quit their jobs since 20 February in protest at the government’s decision to add 2,000 more medical seats each year. The President pointed out that adding those seats was “a minimum increase the government came up with through thorough calculations, and followed sufficient and wide-ranging discussions with the medical community, including doctors’ groups, until the decision was reached.”
The protest sparked a health sector crisis as hospitals were forced to reduce admission hours and decrease working time. Senior medical scientists, including professors, have threatened to cut working hours as part of the ongoing demonstrations.
However, Yoon argued that the medical reform plan was “meant for the people” and “improved essential medical services and rural medical services so that people anywhere in the country can receive proper treatment.”
Currently, there are 115,000 doctors in the country. If their number increases by 2,000 annually starting 10 years from now, only in 2045 will there be an additional 20,000 doctors.
