Seoul [South Korea], March 29: The healthcare industry crisis in Korea due to a wave of strikes by intern doctors continues to be tense, as they and the government cannot find common ground.
The hospital suffered huge losses
According to Yonhap, as of March 28, more than 90% of the 13,000 intern doctors across the country were on strike to protest the government's increase in medical school enrollment quotas by 2,000 places from 2025, compared to 3,058 places. like now. The government said this increase was introduced to address the shortage of doctors in rural areas and essential fields, as the population ages rapidly. The country is expected to lack 15,000 doctors by 2035. However, doctors argue that increasing the quota will reduce the quality of training and medical services, while creating a surplus of doctors.
The unrest has caused Korea's five major general hospitals to lose more than 1 billion won (nearly 18.4 billion VND) per day, while the entire medical system is almost paralyzed. This forced many health care facilities to temporarily close some medical examination areas and redeploy staff. Seoul National University Hospital closed 10 out of 60 wards. The situation is even more alarming when many emergency departments and cancer patient treatment departments are also on the list of having to temporarily suspend operations.
According to hospital representatives, this is the only solution for medical staff to better focus on emergency and seriously ill patients, as manpower is increasingly reduced. Some medical facilities are even accepting unpaid leave applications from employees in an effort to cut costs and postpone the nursing recruitment process. Many hospitals also had to mobilize a credit worth 100 billion won to cope with further financial difficulties.
Haven't found the exit yet
When asked about when the crisis would be resolved, several anonymous health officials said they could not give an exact answer, after a series of leading professors at most of the 40 medical schools nationwide Quoc began submitting his resignation this week.
Faced with the above situation, The Korea Times reported that the Korean government is tending to turn to dialogue with doctors. Accordingly, President Yoon Suk Yeol invited doctors to participate in discussions on the government's health budget. Although Mr. Yoon still emphasized that "there will be no compromise on increasing medical school enrollment quotas," a growing number of voices in the ruling National Power Party (PPP) urged him to be "flexible." " about the number of additional indicators.
According to PPP interim leader Han Dong-hoon, public health is a top priority so there is no limit on the topic of negotiations between the government and doctors. Speaking to the press, he said he believes the parties will reach consensus through constructive dialogue. He also implied that the government and doctors could compromise around the 2,000 target number.
However, the prospects for negotiations worsened when the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the country's largest doctors' union, elected Mr. Lim Hyun-taek as its new leader. Mr. Lim is one of those who strongly opposes the government's plan to increase enrollment targets. He even asserted that the current quota should be reduced from 500 to 1,000.
Mr. Lim's three-year term will officially begin on May 1. However, he issued a warning that the KMA will launch a general strike if any intern, medical professor or student is affected by the government's decisions. The preconditions he set for dialogue with officials include President Yoon issuing an official apology for promoting this policy, as well as firing Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong and Deputy Minister Y. Park Min-soo.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper