About 300 South Korean patients' rights activists gathered in Seoul on Thursday to urge doctors to end their prolonged strike, which is having a serious impact on public health services.
Since February, thousands of doctors and interns have stopped working to protest a measure to increase the number of admissions to medical schools in order to combat shortages of doctors and prepare for the rapid aging of the population.
The strike led to disruptions in hospitals and several establishments were forced to cancel treatments and major surgical operations.
The approximately 300 demonstrators who gathered in the capital on Thursday called for an end to the strike and the adoption of laws aimed at preventing any further industrial action.
“We can no longer bear the continued consequences and anxiety” linked to this movement, they declared in a joint statement, adding that “medical services must under no circumstances be suspended”.
Kim Jeong-ae, whose daughter is fighting for treatment for a rare disease, says patients are being used as "pawns" by the medical community.
“Would you do this if the patients were your sons and daughters?” “, she declared, her head shaved in protest.
Last May, the government validated an increase in admission quotas of around 1,500 places for medical schools in 2025 in order, according to it, to remedy the shortage of doctors and the rapid aging of the population.
Senior doctors and medical professors from some of the country's leading medical institutions recently joined the strike as a sign of solidarity.
Doctors at some of the country's largest medical facilities have also suspended outpatient treatment and elective surgeries.
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