The Day COVID Cases Returned to Three Digits... Korean Medical Association's Mass Strike

COVID-19 Cases Reach 100s After 20 Days
Concerns Over Medical Service Gaps Amid Holiday Season

On the 14th, when the Korea Medical Association began a nationwide collective strike centered on local clinics, a dermatology clinic in downtown Seoul posted a notice of closure. The Korea Medical Association announced a general strike on this day in protest against the government's expansion of medical school quotas and the establishment of public medical schools. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporters Kwangho Lee and Hyunui Cho] The Korean Medical Association went on strike for one day on the 14th in protest against the government's medical policies, including the expansion of medical school quotas. This is the first strike in six years since opposing the introduction of telemedicine in 2014.

As the number of new domestic COVID-19 cases exceeded the 100 mark for the first time in 20 days on this day, concerns over medical service gaps are growing as the medical community went on strike again on this day following the strike on the 7th.

On this day, more than one in four medical institutions, including local clinics nationwide, participated in the collective strike. As of 2 p.m. the previous day, 8,365 out of 33,836 clinic-level medical institutions nationwide (24.7%) had reported pre-strike closures. Even those who did not report closures may have taken vacations using the temporary holidays until the 17th, so the perceived medical service gap could be even greater.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare also predicted, "Due to the vacation season, the closure rate on the day is expected to be higher." However, no hospital-level institutions reported closures. While some inconveniences such as longer outpatient waiting times may occur, essential services directly related to patients' lives, such as emergency rooms, intensive care units, dialysis rooms, and delivery rooms, will operate normally.

The government requested the Korean Hospital Association and others to extend medical services to minimize the medical service gap caused by the collective strike and urged them to maintain the emergency medical system. It is expected that professor-level medical staff affiliated with general hospitals will not participate in the strike, and major university hospitals have taken measures such as postponing some surgeries and examinations and reallocating personnel to prevent disruptions in medical services.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun expressed regret over the collective strike, saying, "It is very regrettable that they refused the government's continuous requests for dialogue and resorted to collective action," and added, "The public remembers the dedication and sacrifice of doctors who have fought hard to overcome COVID-19, but the collective strike by some doctors undermines this social recognition and only causes pain to the people suffering from COVID-19 and the recent floods."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.