South Korean government has asked medical professors not to join the strike

Seoul, March 15 (EFE).- South Korea’s Health Minister Cho Kyu-hong this Friday asked professors of the medical faculty not to join the strike in which doctors-in-training have been going on strike for some time . More than three weeks.

Professors at several medical teaching centers have also threatened to walk off their jobs next week, further complicating the situation in the health system, if the South Korean executive does not offer sufficient progress to resolve the current situation.

The professors announced earlier in the week that they would be supporting resident doctors with the measure, who are protesting against government plans to increase the number of places at medical schools by 2,000 per year – to a total of 5,058.

“It will be difficult for the public to understand that medical professors are abandoning their patients and engaging in collective action, when they should be focusing on convincing trainees and students to return to schools and colleges,” Cho said during an interministerial meeting today. ”

Thousands of medical students across the country have stopped attending classes for weeks in support of the strike, which began on February 20 and in which more than 90% of the country’s 13,000 intern doctors participate.

Since resident doctors make up about 40% of the staff at the country’s largest Seoul hospitals, these medical centers are being forced to suspend nearly half of scheduled surgeries and refer patients with emergencies to other centers.

The executive argues that it is necessary to increase the annual places in medical schools by 2,000 to address the shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas and in areas such as paediatrics, obstetrics or cardiothoracic surgery.

But doctors condemn that the decision is one-sided and the increase should be of 350 places so that it does not affect the quality of training and service and it should be invested in some areas and the legal protection of health workers should be strengthened.

The Asian country has not increased places in medicine in 27 years and has one of the OECD countries with the lowest number of doctors per 1,000 inhabitants (2.46), behind only Mexico, Poland, Colombia and Turkey. efe

ASB/MRA/LAA