Medical professors in South Korea have said they will reduce the hours they spend in practice, while some say they plan to resign, in a widening of a doctors strike in the country.
The move will begin on Monday in support of trainee doctors who have been on strike for more than a month over a government plan to boost medical school admissions.
The president of the Medical Professors Association of Korea, Kim Chang-soo, said professors will start scaling back outpatient treatment to focus on emergency and severely ill patients, while others will submit their resignations.
“It is clear that increasing medical school admissions will not only ruin medical school education but cause our country’s healthcare system to collapse,” he said.
Trainee doctors have been on strike since 20 February over a plan to increase the number of students admitted each year to medical school from 2025 to address shortages in rural areas and greater demand on services caused by South Korea’s rapidly ageing population.
But the striking doctors, who make up 93% of the trainee workforce, claim the recruitment of 2,000 additional students a year from 2025 will compromise the quality of services. Critics have said the authorities should focus on improving the pay and working conditions of trainee doctors first.
The industrial action has forced several hospitals to turn back patients and delay procedures.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has made healthcare reforms one of his signature policy initiatives, has vowed not to back down on implementing the admissions plan.
South Korea’s government has also threatened to suspend the licences of the doctors who have walked off their jobs, but on Sunday Yoon appeared to seek a more conciliatory approach and urged prime minister Han Duck-soo to seek “flexible measures” in dealing with the suspension.
Yoon’s office said he also ordered the prime minister to form a “constructive consultative body” to speak with all medical professionals.
According to a Gallup poll released on 15 March, 38% said the government was doing a good job in dealing with the backlash from doctors to the plan and the medical void amid the doctors’ strike, while 49% said “not a good job”.