Trainee doctors in S. Korea strike over plan to add more physicians

Public upset with walkout as hospitals turn away patients, delay procedures

- Wendy Teo

SEOUL More than 1,600 trainee doctors in South Korea walked out from their jobs on Feb 20, forcing hospitals to turn away patients and scramble to reschedule non-urgent medical procedures.

The collective action came a day after 6,400 trainee doctors across the country - representing half of all trainee doctors resigned en masse to protest against a government plan to increase medical school admissions from 2025.

On Feb 6, Seoul announced a plan to increase the annual intake of medical school students to about 5,000, a 65 per cent increase from the current 3,000, in a bid to reverse a chronic shortage of doctors.

But the plan was opposed by both the Korea Interns and Residents Association and the Korea Medical Association, which argued that there are sufficient doctors in the country and that any increase in their numbers could lead to unnecessary medical procedures and strain Korea's National Health Insurance system.

Critics are calling out the doctors for acting out of self-interest instead.

Professor of health economics and policy at Seoul National University Kim Jin-hyun said the protest is based on "weak justification" and added that "doctors should never leave their patients".

It is a fact that there is a shortage of doctors, he told The Straits Times.

According to 2023 data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), there are 2.6 practising doctors for every 1,000 people in Korea, significantly lower than the OECD average of 3.7.