SEOUL: About 20 per cent of South Korea’s trainee doctors said on Friday (Feb 16) they would resign effective on Tuesday to protest a government plan to admit more students to medical schools, saying this would hurt the national health insurance scheme.
Representatives of the trainees, who work at the country’s five biggest hospitals, all in Seoul, have decided to leave their posts on Tuesday, the head of the Korea Interns and Residents Association (KIRA), Park Dan, said in a statement.
The government has said it will respond firmly to doctor strikes and vows to go ahead with the plan, which got strong public support in opinion polls last year.
The trainee doctors, estimated by media reports to number about 2,700, are about a fifth of the country’s interns and resident doctors. The system relies on them for emergency and acute healthcare, raising concerns about how the action could affect hospitals.
Doctors and medical students say the government’s plan would encourage unnecessary medical care by increasing the number of doctors and making care more accessible. This would worsen the finances of the national health insurance plan, they say.