Strikes in South Korea: government offers to negotiate with doctors

The South Korean government said Thursday pick up à open negotiations with young doctors on strike who are paralyzing the health system; of the country, urging them à return to work so as not to risk prosecution.

Nearly 10,000 medical interns, or 80% of the workforce, have walked off the job since last week to protest against a reform opening up admission to medical faculties more widely.

The government has given them until Thursday to return to work, otherwise they risk arrests or losing their licenses.

“I sent a message requesting a meeting (to the doctors' representatives) (…) I have to go there today to see how many people will be present,” Second Vice Minister of Health Park Min-soo said at a press briefing.

Young doctors are rejecting the government's plan to significantly increase admissions to medical schools. The authorities thus intend to deal with shortages of health personnel and the aging of the population.

The interns claim that this plan would harm the quality of the service, and an association of South Korean Doctors (KMA) accused the government of “intimidation” on Wednesday.

According to Mr. Park, doctors began returning to work in hospitals on Thursday . “We have observed a reduction in the strike movement for two consecutive days,” he said. But Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong told local media on Thursday that “a massive return (of young doctors) has not yet materialized.” “I implore them to do this for the patients,” he said.

An ambulance parked in front of St Mary's Hospital of the Catholic University of Korea on February 29, 2024 in Seoul. © AFP – Anthony WALLACE

Mr. Cho stressed that the government is determined to implement its reform plan, which would increase medical school admissions by 65 percent.

The KMA doctors' organization did not comment on the offer of negotiations, but a group of young doctors on a social network shared a screenshot of a government message with the response: “You must be joking.”

– “The impasse will continue” –

Analysts believe that the government's hard line could be favorable to him in view of the next elections.

The entrance to the emergency department of St Mary's Hospital of the Catholic University of Korea on February 29, 2024 in Seoul © AFP – Anthony WALLACE

“If the government were to reverse course now, it would be seen as a major setback before the legislative elections on April 10,” Kim Jae-heon, head of an NGO in in favor of free medical care.

But doctors “believe that going backwards at this stage would be to their disadvantage. It seems that the current impasse will continue for a certain time”.

Seoul University Hospital, February 21, 2024 in South Korea © AFP – Anthony WALLACE

Reform supporters say doctors are most concerned that the changes could lower their salaries and social status.

Seoul claims to have one of the lowest doctor-patient ratios among developed countries, and the government insists on admitting 2,000 more students to medical schools each year, starting next year.

Nearly 75% of the population is in favor of reforms, according to polls, and the hard line adopted by President Yoon Suk Yeol in this crisis has allowed him to see his popularity increase.

But Kim Sung-ju, chairman of the Korean Cancer Patients' Rights Council, believes that patients' lives are being “held hostage”.

< p>“It's incredible (that doctors) use patients' lives as leverage to promote their own interests,” he told AFP.

Doctors demonstrate in Seoul, February 21, 2024 in South Korea © AFP – Jung Yeon-je

The mass walkout led to cancellations and postponements of surgeries for cancer patients and C-sections for pregnant women.

For Kim Tae-hyeon, head of a neurodegenerative disease patients' association, the striking interns are “worse than criminals”. “In palliative care wards and intensive care units patients struggle to stay alive.”

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