The continuity of the massive doctors’ strike in South Korea will depend on the Government’s decision

South Korea’s doctors’ representative association (KMA) has offered to hold a vote on whether to go ahead with a massive strike if the Government accepts three demands, including reconsidering the issue of increasing admission quotas in medical schools.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) made the offer two days before the scheduled start of the strikewhich involves the medical professors from Seoul’s five major hospitals, as well as community doctors.

The strike will be in support of trainee doctors, who have left their jobs since February, in protest against the government’s plan to increase the quota for medical students.

Patients in South Korea implore doctors to scrap planned strike

The KMA gave the government a given deadline to respond to its three demands, which also include re-examining and supplementing key points in the government’s policy package for the essential medical services sector and canceling all sanctions against trainee doctors. .

If government authorities accept the demands of health professionals, the KMA confirmed that it will hold a vote among all members to decide whether to continue with the protest movement. However, if the Government refuses, they announced that the indefinite strike will take place as planned.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare issued a press release urging the unconditional cancellation of the protest and emphasized that it is “inappropriate for the KMA to make political demands to the Government under the condition of a illegal strike«.