Pregnant women scheduled to have caesarean sections were cancelled, and treatment of cancer patients was postponed on Wednesday (21/2), following the resignation of many interns in South Korea over proposed reforms, officials and local reports said.
More than 8,800 young doctors – 71 percent of the workforce who are still interns – have now quit, said Seoul's Second Deputy Health Minister Park Min-soo. The action was part of growing protests against the government's plans to drastically increase student intake at the Faculty of Medicine.
Seoul says the reforms are important, given the country's low number of doctors and rapidly aging population, but doctors say the changes will hurt service provision and the quality of education.
Critics say doctors fear the reforms could erode their salaries and social prestige. While the plan has received widespread support from the South Korean public, especially those in remote areas where quality services are often inaccessible.
Park said on Wednesday (21/2) that 7,813 medical interns had not yet returned to work – a nearly fivefold increase from the first day of action on Monday – despite the government urging many of them to return to hospital.
“The fundamental calling of medical professionals is to protect people's health and lives, and any group action that threatens this is unjustifiable,” Park said.
The doctors' strike is a violation of South Korean law, as medical workers cannot refuse return-to-work orders “without justifiable reasons”, he said.
South Korean public hospitals rely heavily on interns for emergency procedures and surgery. Local media reports said cancer patients and pregnant women who needed C-sections had to be canceled or postponed, and some cases caused “devastation,” Park said. (lt/ns)