A general hospital in Seoul (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — A total of 6,415 trainee doctors at 100 hospitals have submitted their resignations in protest of the government’s plan to boost the number of medical students, the health ministry said Tuesday.
Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters that the ministry ordered 757 trainee doctors to return to work, with tensions between doctors and the government spiking over the plan to add 2,000 to the country’s medical school enrollment quota next year.
There are around 13,000 trainee doctors in South Korea.
With trainee doctors stopping work at some hospitals, some patients have already experienced delays in surgeries and other treatments. Still, no major disruption in medical services has yet occurred.
(Yonhap)
