Unionized workers at Seoul National University Hospital in central Seoul stage a demonstration on June 17, 2024, urging professors to withdraw their walkout. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jun. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Medical professors at hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University (SNU) began an indefinite walkout on Monday, according to a group of patients, with about 55 percent of the professors expected to join the move against the government’s medical reform.
A total of 529 professors at the four hospitals — SNU Hospital, SNU Bundang Hospital, Seoul Metropolitan Government SNU Boramae Medical Center, and SNU Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Center — have pledged to walk off the job.
However, emergency rooms and treatment for critically ill patients will not be affected, hospital officials said.
“We are not suspending all treatments entirely. We are only halting treatments for patients who can receive care at other hospitals or whose conditions will not be adversely affected by a temporary delay in treatment,” an emergency committee of SNU medical professors said.
“As hospitals will continue to provide care for patients with critical or rare diseases, the actual number of treatments will decrease by 40 percent due to the walkout,” it added.
Despite fierce protests by trainee doctors, the government finalized an admissions quota hike of some 1,500 students for medical schools late last month, marking the first such increase in 27 years.
(Yonhap)
