Mass Strike of South Korean Doctors Enters its 4th Day, Hospitals Increase Telemedicine Services

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Jakarta –

Public hospitals in South Korea will extend working hours, the prime minister announced on Friday (23/2/2024). It will also expand telemedicine services to ease the growing burden on health facilities after thousands of doctors went on strike this week.

Hospitals have been turning away patients and canceling operations after about two-thirds of the country’s young doctors resigned in protest against government plans to increase medical school admission quotas.

“Operations of public medical institutions will be scaled up to the maximum,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said at a disaster management meeting, and said the hospitals would stay open longer and on weekends and holidays to accommodate the surge in patients.

As the doctors’ mass strike entered its fourth day, the Health Ministry said it was allowing all hospitals and clinics to offer telemedicine services, such as consultations and prescriptions, which until now were only available on a limited basis.

“More than 7,800 interns and resident doctors have left,” added the local Ministry of Health.

This number is only a small part of the 100,000 doctors in South Korea, but they have an important role in the daily operations of teaching hospitals, as they can account for more than 40 percent of the staff.

They perform essential duties in emergency rooms, intensive care units, and operating rooms in large hospitals treating patients referred by small hospitals and private clinics.

Nurses warned that they were being forced to carry out procedures in wards and operating theaters that would normally be the privilege of trainee doctors.

“The primary responsibility of anyone in the medical profession is to safeguard the health and lives of patients,” said Tak Young-ran, president of the Korean Nurses Association, and urged doctors to return to work.

Increasing pressure on hospitals prompted the government to raise its health alert to ‘severe’ from ‘caution’ on Friday after emergency departments at the largest hospitals had been restricted since protests began on Tuesday.

Next: Problems with wages and working conditions

(naf/naf)