S. Korean protesters urge doctors to end 4-month-long strike

Patients and families rally in capital as hospitals cut back on medical services

- Wendy Teo

Just a week before South Korean trainee doctors staged a mass walkout on Feb 20, Madam Lisa Kim was hospitalised for a high fever.

A CT scan showed severe liver abscesses and an ominous mass on her pancreas. She was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer which had already spread to her lungs, liver, thyroid and peritoneum. Doctors told her she had only a one per cent survival rate. It was grim news.

“I had so many questions in my head. The emotions I felt were so overwhelming that I felt like I was heading straight towards death,” she told The Straits Times on the sidelines of a July 4 rally urging physicians to halt the four-month-long strike.

Braving the sweltering summer heat and despite her frail condition, the 61-year-old joined some 300 others, including patients, their families and patient advocacy groups, to stage the rally in central Seoul.

The diagnosis earlier this year was “extremely frightening, difficult, and despairing”, said Madam Kim, who was also due to be hospitalised for a follow-up treatment later that afternoon after the rally.

And to add to the stress of the sudden diagnosis, medical services and her treatment were also affected after thousands of trainee doctors stopped work indefinitely in protest against government plans to increase the number of medical student slots by 2,000 from 2025.

The figure was later revised to 1,500 amid mounting pressure.