South Korea gave the protesting doctors 4 days to end the strike

The South Korean government gave the protesting doctors four days to return to work without any penalty, otherwise they will face indictment and suspension of their medical licenses if the strike continues beyond the specified date.

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South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted Park Min-soo, vice minister of health, as saying at a press conference: “The government will not take any disciplinary action against the striking doctors if they return to work by next Thursday.” We want them to return to work by the end of this month (February) and if they do not return to the hospitals they left by then, we will not be responsible for any damages caused by their strike.

He further emphasized that doctors who do not comply with the deadline will be punished by suspending their medical license for at least three months and will face further legal procedures such as investigation and possible indictment. The Korean official continued: The suspension of the license may affect future career paths, including job opportunities abroad, and the government will spare no effort to continue dialogue with the medical community. We hope to discuss ways to pursue medical reform through dialogue and debate.

So far, 9006 intern doctors in hospitals have left their jobs in protest against the government’s plan to increase admissions in medical schools by about 65% and announced that these strikes have severely damaged the work in hospitals and many surgeries and other Treatments have been cancelled.

On the other hand, government officials added that more doctors are necessary to deal with the rapid aging of the population in South Korea, and the ratio of doctors to patients currently in the country is one of the lowest in developed countries. In turn, they said that the universities cannot handle such a large number of new students and believe that this plan cannot solve the chronic shortage of doctors in some key fields.

It is worth noting that under South Korea’s medical law, the government can order doctors and other medical personnel back to work when it deems there are serious risks to public health. Refusal to comply with such an order could result in individuals being imprisoned for up to three years or fined 30 million won (US$22,480) in addition to revocation of medical licenses.