Junior doctors push South Korea into 'severe' medical emergency as strike grows

Patients seeking emergency care are being turned away, hospitals are cancelling operations, forcing South Korea to raise its public health alert to “severe” for the first time on Friday after walkout by 8,400 doctors to protest against government recruitment plans.

According to the health ministry, so far, about 64 per cent of the entire number of resident and intern doctors in South Korea have joined the walkout.

A Yonhap news agency report said major general hospitals in South Korea have been forced to cancel up to 50 per cent of operations and turn away patients seeking emergency care.

As per reports in local media, emergency departments at all big hospitals were on red alert. The situation is expected to get worse as doctors warned they would continue their strike action.

A large rally is also likely in Seoul on Sunday.

The mounting pressure on hospitals has prompted the health ministry to “raise the healthcare disaster risk alert from cautious to severe” for the first time. The government cited the “intensifying” walkout and growing concerns over its impact on public health.

Number less but worrisome

Though the trainee doctors, who have staged walkout in protest, represent a far smaller fraction of the country’s 100,000 doctors overall, they make up a big portion of the staff at teaching hospitals, more than 40 per cent in some cases, and play a pivotal role in the daily operations.

Their assistance is especially required in emergency rooms, intensive care units and operating rooms at the large hospitals, which are visited by patients referred to them by secondary hospitals and private practice clinics.

Larger hospitals in South Korea excessively depend on trainee doctors in part for cost reasons.

South Korea doctors’ protest

The walkout by South Korea’s young doctors began earlier this week after the government announced its plan to increase the number of students admitted to medical school in a bid to bolster the healthcare system of one of the world’s most rapidly ageing societies.

Some physicians claimed that there are already enough physicians and that additional recruitment would compromise the standard of medical care.

Others insist they are campaigning for higher pay and reductions in their workload, and not against the planned recruitment drive.

Justifying its decision, the government said more doctors will be needed to meet future healthcare challenges posed by South Korea’s rapidly ageing society. The government has forecast that more than a fifth of the country’s population of 51 million will be aged over 64 by 2025.

The government has also threatened to arrest the doctors leading the walkout.

Unhappy South Koreans

As per a recent Gallup Korea poll finding, 76 per cent of South Koreans were in favour of the government’s hiring plans. But many of them, mostly those waiting for medical care, voiced dismay over the dispute.

“If the government truly cares for its people, I hope they take a step back now, and doctors also take a step back, so that patients won’t be hurt,” a report by Reuters quoted a 34-year-old office worker with a broken leg as saying.

The patient said he had been turned away by three hospitals before finally receiving treatment at a publicly run medical centre in Seoul.

“Doctors are supposed to treat patients, so it seems unreasonable for them to go on strike,” said the patient said, whose broken leg requires surgery.

Another patient, Lee Joo-hyung, said he had been able to receive treatment for his asthma but was concerned he would struggle to find a doctor for his next appointment in three months’ time.

“So many doctors have submitted their resignations so we don’t know what will happen,” the 31-year-old teacher said. “I’m really worried," Lee said.

With inputs from agencies