South Korea’s general hospitals rely heavily on trainees for emergency operations and surgeries, and local reports said cancer patients and expectant mothers needing C-sections had seen procedures cancelled or delayed, with scores of cases causing “damage”, Park said.
“My surgery was cancelled on the day of admission due to the doctors’ strike, and I’m still dumbfounded,” wrote @August_holiday on social media platform X.
Another user on South Korea’s Naver web portal said her mother’s long-awaited cerebral aneurysm surgery had been abruptly delayed.
“I’m furious that (the doctors) can act so irresponsibly,” user @488653 wrote.
Junior doctors claim the new medical education reforms are the final straw for many workers in a profession already struggling with tough working conditions, such as in emergency rooms.
“Despite working more than 80 hours a week and receiving compensation at minimum wage level, trainee doctors have been neglected by the government until now,” the Korea Interns and Residents Association said in a statement.
The over-reliance on trainee doctors in the current healthcare system was not reasonable or fair, they added.
Nurses, who have been left in charge during the strike, urged doctors to return to work, even as they sympathised with their fight against the reform.
“Do not ignore your conscience toward the patients being left behind,” the Korean Young Nurses Association wrote in a social media post.