South Korea doctors’ walkout leaves those in need of care in limbo: ‘they should stay with patients’

Name: South Korean patients suffer as healthcare system in turmoil amid doctor protest
Uploaded: 2024-03-11T04:34:12.000Z
Duration: 3 min 4 s
Description: South Korean patients suffer as healthcare system in turmoil amid doctor protest

More than 90 per cent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors, similar to medical residents, defied a government deadline to return to work by the start of March

The walkout has led to about a 50 per cent reduction in surgeries and decreased staffing levels at emergency rooms, the government said

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A patient stands at a hospital in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Reuters

Bloomberg

Published: 12:34pm, 11 Mar 2024Updated: 1:36pm, 11 Mar 2024

Lee Kyung-ja’s sister is caught in the middle of a labour dispute between South Korean doctors and the government, and her life is at risk.

“This walkout is driving me mad,” said Lee, a 70-year-old visitor to a local hospital in Cheongju, thinking of her sister who has been trying to schedule an appointment for a cancer prognosis. “Doctors deal with life and death, so they should stay with the patients even as they protest.”

Trainee doctors, who play key roles in providing emergency care and surgeries, walked off the job more than three weeks ago to protest a government plan to increase enrolment at medical schools by 2,000 spots a year from the current 3,058. President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration is standing by the plan and finding funding for those who have stayed at their posts.

As the labour action drags on, people seeking healthcare have been putting off procedures, trying telemedicine and going to local clinics instead of emergency rooms. The government has allowed nurses to take on more tasks in providing healthcare, opened up emergency rooms in military hospitals to the public, and is deploying some of its doctors serving in the military to civilian facilities.

This has helped keep the healthcare system running, albeit precariously, and left people on edge about putting aside care now that could cause irreparable harm later.

Lee takes care of her 62-year-old sister, who found out a few months ago that she had late-stage cancer causing pain in her pelvis. Despite several scans at Chungbuk National University Hospital, the biggest in the city, her sister has failed to schedule a surgery let alone determine the exact type of cancer, even as the skin from her waist to thigh turns dark. Lee blamed the walkout.

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South Korean patients suffer as healthcare system in turmoil amid doctor protest

More than 90 per cent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors, who are similar to medical residents, have defied a government deadline to return to work by the start of March, according to Yonhap News. The walkout has led to about a 50 per cent reduction in surgeries and decreased staffing levels at emergency rooms, the government said.