South Korea urges doctors to return to their jobs after they took part in a lengthy strike against medical school plans

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean authorities have ordered doctors who took part in a one-day strike Tuesday to return to work, part of a long-running battle against government plans to significantly increase admissions to medical schools.

Since February, more than 12,000 doctors in training have gone on strike in an escalating conflict with government officials who want to increase the number of doctors in the country by up to 10,000 by 2035. Many oppose the plan, which is due to come into force next year, arguing that schools will not be able to cope with the increased influx and that the quality of the country’s medical care will suffer.

About four percent of the country’s 36,000 private medical facilities, classified as clinics, have notified authorities that they would take part in a one-day strike on Tuesday, South Korea’s Health and Welfare Ministry said.

Earlier, a day had passed since hundreds of medical professors at four major hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University began an indefinite strike, raising fears of disruption to medical care.

There is also the possibility that the strike will be extended.

At a rally attended by thousands of doctors in Seoul on Tuesday, Lim Hyun-taek, the hardline leader of the Korean Medical Association, said he would urge his members to go on an indefinite strike on June 27 if the government rejected his demand to completely abandon plans to increase admissions to medical schools. The KMA is the country’s largest doctors’ lobby with over 100,000 members.

South Korea’s Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang said the one-day strike by hospitals and the walkout by medical professors affiliated with SNU had not immediately led to major problems in medical care.

He accused the lengthy strike of threatening to “destroy the trusting relationship between doctors and patients that our society has built up over a long period of time.”

“We cannot grant unlimited freedom to the medical profession,” Jun said on Tuesday. “As they benefit from a medical licensing system that limits the supply (of doctors) and ensures their monopoly on the profession, doctors must uphold their share of professional and ethical responsibilities as well as their legal obligations under medical law.”

Under South Korean law, doctors who defy orders to return to work can expect driving license withdrawal or other penalties.

Jun said they plan to ask hospitals to file compensation claims against the striking medical professors if their work stoppages prolong and disrupt medical care. He said hospitals that do not adequately respond to the work stoppages could face disadvantages in receiving compensation from health insurance companies and the government plans to take legal action against any hospital that cancels reserved treatments for patients without notifying them in advance.

At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol called the months-long strike “regrettable” and warned that his government would respond strictly to “illegal activities that abandon patients.”

The striking doctors suffered a major legal setback in May when the Seoul Supreme Court rejected their request to block the government’s planwhich would increase the annual medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 from the current cap of 3,058.

The doctor-to-population ratio in South Korea is one of the lowest in the developed world.

Government officials say the country needs significantly more doctors to rapidly ageing population and they downplayed doctors’ concerns about possible future income losses.

The striking doctors represent only a fraction of South Korea’s total medical workforce, estimated at between 115,000 and 140,000. Nevertheless, the walkouts have led to the cancellation of numerous surgeries and other treatments in some large hospitals that rely more heavily on residents and interns.

Government officials had previously threatened suspend the licenses of the striking doctors, but later stopped these administrative steps to allow for dialogue.