SEOUL (AFP) – A group of South Korean senior doctors said yesterday that they would resign starting March 25 in support of junior medics in a nearly month-long strike over government training reforms that has plunged hospitals into chaos.
Thousands of trainee doctors stopped working on February 20 to protest government reforms aimed at easing doctor shortages by increasing the number of medical students – which the medics claim is the final straw for overworked and underpaid early career professionals.
Crucial surgeries and treatments have been cancelled, but the government says the country has so far avoided a full-blown crisis.
Representatives of medical professors at 20 universities – who are also senior doctors at general hospitals – held a meeting late on Friday, with those at 16 institutions “overwhelmingly in favour” of supporting their junior colleagues, said the head of the group Bang Jae-seung.
