The South Korean government ordered doctors to return to work on Tuesday, as more doctors, including medical professors, join the months-long strike to protest the rising number of doctors. admissions to medical schools.
About 4% of some 36,000 private clinics have notified the government of their intention to close their doors on Tuesday to take part in the protest, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said.
“In order to minimize medical gaps, the return to work order will be issued at 9 a.m. today,” Cho said at a news conference.
The government had already issued a return to work order for striking trainee doctors, before withdrawing it at the start of the month as an olive branch.
Under the law, doctors who fail to comply with the return to work order face suspension of their license or other legal repercussions.
President Yoon Suk Yeol said the doctors’ strike was “regrettable and disappointing.”
“The government has no choice but to crack down hard on illegal acts that neglect patients,” Yoon told a cabinet meeting, while offering to work with doctors if they return to work.
According to a poll conducted last week by local polling firm nownsurvey, nearly eight in ten South Koreans oppose the doctors’ strike.
Some doctors and medical staff have openly criticized the collective action taken in response to the government’s demand to increase the number of admissions to medical schools to address the shortage of doctors in the country.
Others have argued that increasing the number of doctors would not be enough to shore up essential services and rural areas face a growing shortage of doctors.
More than half of medical professors at Seoul National University hospitals began an indefinite strike on Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Korean Medical Association, a leading critic of the government’s reforms, has vowed to go on strike on Tuesday.
The group is also expected to hold a protest in Seoul later today, calling for reconsideration of increasing medical school admissions.
