Smaller towns in South Korea bear brunt of doctors’ shortage
Incheon, South Korea Reuters Hospitals in South Korea’s smaller cities are struggling with a lack of physicians, as a nationwide strike of trainee doctors enters its third month in protest against plans to tackle the shortage by boosting medical school admissions. Seoul, the capital, boasts top-level hospitals, but smaller cities are starved of doctors in a […]
South Korea government to compromise on medical reforms, meet opposition
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea’s government announced a compromise in its medical reform plans on Friday in a bid to end a two-month walkout by doctors, and also said President Yoon Suk Yeol would meet the opposition leader for the first time after two years in office. The conciliatory moves followed a crushing election […]
Negotiator for South Korean walkout doctors sees ‘no future’ after Yoon meeting
Seoul, South Korea Reuters A much-heralded first meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and a negotiator for young doctors who walked off the job in February appeared to have made little progress on Thursday after the latter expressed pessimism on social media. Yoon’s office said his first in-person talks lasted more than two […]
Doctors who visited Gaza speak of “atrocities”, collapsing healthcare
Reuters The healthcare system in Gaza has essentially collapsed, Western doctors who visited the Palestinian enclave in recent months told an event at the United Nations on Monday, speaking of “appalling atrocities” from Israel’s offensive. The four doctors from the United States, United Kingdom and France have been working with teams in Gaza to support […]
South Korea deploys military, public doctors to strike-hit hospitals
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea will start deploying military physicians and doctors from public health centres to strike-hit hospitals on Monday to help care for patients affected by the walkout of nearly 12,000 trainee doctors from 100 hospitals over government reform plans. Twenty military surgeons along with 138 public health doctors will be assigned […]
South Korean doctors holds a mass rally against medical policy
Seoul, South Korea Reuters Thousands of South Korean doctors held a mass rally on Sunday against government plans to increase medical school admissions, defying official calls for trainee physicians who had also walked off the job in protest to return to work. Up to 40,000 doctors joined the rally, demanding the government scrap the plan, […]
South Korea’s Yoon says won’t back down over medical reforms as doctors strike
Seoul, South Korea Reuters President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed on Tuesday to go ahead with a plan to increase the number of students admitted into medical schools to improve healthcare in South Korea, and said there was no justification for the protests this reform had triggered. More than 9,000 young doctors, or about two-thirds of […]
Overworked and unheard, South Korean doctors on mass walkout say
Seoul, South Korea Reuters Ryu Ok Hada always wanted to help people, but now the South Korean trainee doctor has walked off the job and stands outside the hospital where he worked, holding his medical gown in his hand. Park Dan, who recently realised his childhood dream of being an emergency physician, is also one […]
South Korea health alert raised to ‘severe’ over doctors walkout
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea will maximise the use of public hospitals to respond to growing strains on the medical system after a mass walkout by trainee doctors, the prime minister said on Friday, as the public health alert was elevated to the highest level. The protests by almost two-thirds of the country’s young […]
South Korea emergency units turn back patients as doctors protest
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea’s biggest hospitals cancelled procedures and turned away patients seeking emergency care on Wednesday after thousands of trainee doctors walked off the job in protest at a government plan to boost medical school admissions. One hospital, the Asan Medical Center in Seoul, put up a sign saying its emergency unit […]