South Korea's doctors' strike, which commenced on February 20th due to a dispute between the government and doctors, has passed the one-month mark and is significantly impacting citizens.

When South Korean doctors (residents and trainees) protested against the government's decision to increase the number of medical students by 2,000 to address several issues.

South Korea recorded the lowest number of doctors per 1,000 population among OECD countries in 2019-2022, with 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people and the difference between Seoul and the provinces is very large.

One of the reasons for the government's announced increase in medical students is to address this disparity between Seoul and the rest of the country.

This is a policy that was also pushed forward by the previous administration which also led to a month-long doctors' strike in 2020.

However, the Korea Medical Association argued that these problems can not be solved by increasing the number of medical students, leading to a conflict between the government and doctors.

Despite the government issuing an injunction against the doctors' strike stating that they would enforce the law without exception and could revoke their licenses, many doctors still submitted their resignations and joined the strike.

The amendment to the Medical Service Act allows doctors' licenses to be revoked if they are sentenced to more than imprisonment.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea on Feb 26th, more than 10,000 interns and resident doctors at a hundred hospitals countrywide have submitted their resignations and more than 9,000 have walked off the job.

There are arguments that residents who don't participate in the strike are called betrayers and cannot easily disagree because they are afraid of disadvantages in relationships that will last even after graduation.

There was also a case of insulting residents who did not participate in the strike by posting them online.

The prolonged doctors' strike has left emergency rooms unattended and unable to provide for emergency patients, leaving innocent citizens to suffer the consequences.

In fact, within days of the start of the doctors' strike, reports emerged of several people dying due to the inability to receive emergency medical treatment.

This drew further criticism from the public for doctors breaking the Hippocratic Oath.

In one instance in Gyeongsangbuk-do, a victim of a car accident had to ride in an ambulance for over 145 minutes because there was no hospital available for treatment.

In response, the government said they are considering increasing the work authorization of nurses to solve these situations.

The repercussions of these conflicts have been passed on to the public and the strike which seems to have taken patients hostage has created public opinion that the medical profession is more to blame regardless of ideology.

Following the government’s warning on Feb 27th that it would start suspending licenses in March, some doctors returned to work but there were still many who did not.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea issued an advance notice of a three-month license suspension to 7,000 doctors who missed the return deadline.

It is still unknown when doctors will return to the hospital and the system will return to normal again.

Chaemoon Han

Grade 9

Dhahran Middle School