Junior doctors push South Korea into ‘severe’ medical emergency as strike grows

Patients seeking emergency care are being turned away, hospitals are cancelling operations, forcing South Korea to raise its public health alert to “severe” for the first time on Friday after walkout by 8,400 doctors to protest against government recruitment plans.

According to the health ministry, so far, about 64 per cent of the entire number of resident and intern doctors in South Korea have joined the walkout.

A Yonhap news agency report said major general hospitals in South Korea have been forced to cancel up to 50 per cent of operations and turn away patients seeking emergency care.

As per reports in local media, emergency departments at all big hospitals were on red alert. The situation is expected to get worse as doctors warned they would continue their strike action.

A large rally is also likely in Seoul on Sunday.

The mounting pressure on hospitals has prompted the health ministry to “raise the healthcare disaster risk alert from cautious to severe” for the first time. The government cited the “intensifying” walkout and growing concerns over its impact on public health.

Number less but worrisome

Though the trainee doctors, who have staged walkout in protest, represent a far smaller fraction of the country’s 100,000 doctors overall, they make up a big portion of the staff at teaching hospitals, more than 40 per cent in some cases, and play a pivotal role in the daily operations.