Photo: South Korean doctors attended a protest rally in Seoul on the 18th, demanding that the government withdraw its medical school expansion plan. \AFP
[Ta Kung Pao News]According to Yonhap News Agency: The strike and suspension of medical services in the Korean medical community against the expansion of medical school enrollment continues to escalate. On the 18th, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) launched a collective suspension of medical services and threatened to suspend services indefinitely starting from the 27th. The South Korean government issued an order for doctors under the KMA to start work and plans to file a complaint against doctors who unilaterally refuse to see patients. South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol said that he would seriously deal with the illegal act of “abandoning patients.”
On the 18th, the Medical Association launched a collective suspension of medical services and held a large-scale rally in Yeouido, Seoul, threatening to suspend medical services indefinitely from the 27th. The Medical Association proposed three conditions to the South Korean government, including re-examining the medical school expansion plan, revising the controversial content in the basic medical policy package, and canceling the administrative penalties against interns and residents who are on strike. Cho Kyu-hong, the Minister of Health and Welfare of South Korea, said that the government has recently issued orders to maintain medical treatment and suspend medical services to more than 36,000 medical institutions across South Korea, and issued a start-up order on the 18th, aiming to minimize the negative impact of the shortage of medical personnel.
Yoon Seok-yeol said on the 18th that some medical university professors collectively stopped seeing patients, and the Medical Association also illegally refused to see patients, but the government will still unswervingly promote medical reform. Cho Kyu-hong said that the government will sue doctors who cancel appointments without prior notice in accordance with the Medical Law; the government will also entrust investigation agencies to investigate acts such as instigating others to participate in illegal collective suspension of medical services through social media. According to Korean media reports, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has issued a ban on 17 people including Lin Xianze, the president of the Medical Association, on the 14th, requiring relevant personnel not to engage in collective actions or instigate others to participate in collective actions.
source: china