"Hard to Justify Leaving Hospital After Strike Declaration... Threatening Patients' Health"

Residents opposing the government's expansion of medical school quotas held a 24-hour silent picket protest on the 23rd at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul Catholic Central Medical Center. Photo by Asia Economy DB.

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Min Jun-young] Starting from the 26th, the Korea Medical Association has launched a second general strike opposing the government's policy to increase medical school quotas. Amid repeated government requests to halt the medical community's collective action, Lee Bora, co-representative of the Association of Doctors for Humanitarian Practice (Inuihyeop), stated, "Fighting the government while turning their backs on the public is a flawed strategic judgment."

In an interview on the 27th with MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus,' Lee said, "If doctors truly want to have their opinions realized, they must ultimately gain the support of the public and have the public pressure the government through public opinion so that doctors can achieve what they want."

She added, "Doctors certainly deserve fair labor conditions and work environments, but declaring a strike en masse at hospitals and leaving them as is currently happening is difficult to justify," and argued, "It is actually threatening patients' health and lives."

Regarding the Korea Medical Association's claim that there is no shortage of doctors in the country, she said, "It is an objective fact that the number of doctors in our country is below the OECD average," and explained, "Not only is the number of doctors insufficient, but there is also a significant regional disparity among doctors, the labor intensity for doctors is high, and the medical delivery system is broken. Doctors have been able to endure by working excessively under the current medical system, but now they have reached a limit where they can no longer sustain this."

She continued, "Despite these hardships, doctors have endured such poor conditions because they had hope that their future would be secured once this process ended," and added, "They are enduring now thinking things will improve later, but they seem to oppose increasing medical school quotas because they believe their future job competition will become fiercer."

Regarding the reason why the Korea Medical Association is pushing forward with the general strike despite negative public opinion, Lee said, "I think it is because doctors know they are truly important," and pointed out, "Only doctors can treat cancer patients in emergency rooms or patients who absolutely need surgery. They seem to believe that if doctors stop working, both the government and the public will have no choice but to kneel. However, this seems to be a one-sided way of thinking."

On the government's measures to strengthen public healthcare, including expanding the number of doctors and establishing public medical schools, she described them as "very insufficient and extremely narrow measures that only propose increasing the number of doctors," and said, "Simply increasing the number of doctors will not solve the problem. Hospitals must be built and the public healthcare system must be strengthened for the overall problem to be resolved. If only doctors are increased, it is clear that doctors who have completed their mandatory service will all flock to the metropolitan area, so this policy has significant limitations."

Meanwhile, Choi Dae-jip, president of the Korea Medical Association, posted on his Facebook on the 25th, stating, "If the (government's related) policy is withdrawn, the strike will stop and doctors will immediately return," and wrote, "The government, which has pushed forward the four major evil medical policies based on poor communication, arrogance, ignorance, and unilateralism, should now take responsibility."

Choi said, "It is the government that is stubbornly refusing to relent and treating the health and lives of the public as bargaining chips," and clearly stated, "Threats of license suspension, cancellation, and criminal punishment will only worsen the situation."

He also added on the 26th via Facebook, "I will go to jail, so I ask junior doctors not to compromise their principles and to fight to the end," and said, "This is doctors' struggle to protect the value of medical care."

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