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Anxiety is mounting in South Korea’s largest hospitals, now starting to buckle under the gaping absence of thousands of trainee doctors who are on strike against a government plan to increase the intake of medical students.
Despite a slew of emergency measures announced by the government this week, the strike has reportedly affected the operations of major hospitals. A brain cancer patient told AFP that his chemotherapy has been postponed, even though the cancer has spread to his lungs and liver, while pregnant women say they have had their C-sections canceled. The health ministry said it has received around 150 public complaints about the strike.
The number of participants is continuing to snowball, with 74%—or over 9,200—of trainee doctors having tendered their resignations. Over 8,000 have walked off the job, Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said at a news briefing on Thursday.
With junior doctors leaving their posts en masse, nurses are left to hold down the fort, carrying out tasks usually reserved for doctors, such as signing consent forms and dressing wounds, local media reported.
The Korean Young Nurses Association has publicly urged doctors to refrain from joining the strike. “If more trainee doctors stage walkouts, nurses not only have to take on doctoral duties but they also have to deal with the patients’ complaints,” the group wrote in a post on social media. “If something goes wrong with the patient in the process, nurses are required by law to take all the responsibility.”
Meanwhile, Park Min-soo said on Thursday that authorities will not be accepting the resignation letters from the trainee doctors and urged them to consider the consequences of the strike. “The power of doctors does not come from collective action,” he said. “Please remember that patients are waiting for you at this very moment.”
The country’s 13,000 trainee doctors are crucial to its healthcare system, which already has one of the lowest…
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