(4 Mar 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4481212
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seoul, South Korea - 3 March 2024
1. Various of South Korean doctors chanting during rally
2. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Park Myung-ha, President of Seoul Medical Association:
++SOUNDBITE PARTLY OVERLAID WITH SHOT 3++
"What we are demanding is to start the discussion from the beginning. The government says it has discussed (the issues) many times with doctors but it is a lie. The president has been emphasizing the plan to increase medical school quotas by 2,000 and officials have been saying that they won't reconsider the plan. We want the government to go back to the beginning and start earnest negotiations with doctors."
3. Various of rally
STORYLINE:
Thousands of senior doctors rallied in Seoul on Sunday to express their support for junior doctors who have been on strike for nearly two weeks over a government plan to sharply increase the number of medical school admissions.
The rally came as the government said it would begin to take steps Monday to suspend the medical licenses of nearly 9,000 medical interns and residents for defying government orders to end their walkouts, which have disrupted hospital operations.
Protesters chanted slogans, sang and held placards criticizing the government’s plan.
As of Thursday night, 8,945 of the country’s 13,000 medical interns and residents were confirmed to have left their worksites, according to the Health Ministry.
The government has repeatedly said they would face minimum three-month license suspensions and indictments by prosecutors if they didn’t return by February 29.
Their walkouts have subsequently caused numerous cancellations of surgeries and medical treatments at the hospitals.
The government wants to increase South Korea’s medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 starting next year, from the current 3,058, to better deal with the country’s rapidly aging population.
Officials say South Korea’s doctor-to-population ratio is one of the lowest among developed countries.
But many doctors have vehemently protested the plan, saying medical schools can’t handle such a sharp increase in the number of students.
They say the recruitment plan also does not address a chronic shortage of doctors in essential but low-paying specialties like paediatrics and emergency departments.
Doctors say adding too many new doctors would also result in an increase in public medical expenses since greater competition would lead to excess treatments.
But critics say the doctors simply worry about receiving a lower income due to the rising number of doctors.
AP video shot by Yong Jun Chang
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