South Korea: Doctors on Strike to Reject Training Plan

Over a quarter of South Korea's medical clinics closed Friday as physicians protest against new plan to train more doctors.

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Moon Jae-in's administration plans to train 4,000 new medical students over the next 10 years, arguing the need to be better prepared for public health crises.

The Korea Medical Association (KMA) strongly opposed to an increase in the admission quotas at medical schools and said the country has enough doctors.

“The number of physicians per 1,000 people has increased by 3.1 percent annually for the past 10 years, which is 6 times greater than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average,” KMA stated.

The Association also mentioned that the plan to increase the number of new doctors will only lead to more competition inside the health system and will not help to erase the disparity in medical infrastructure among regions.

Protesters also stand against the plan to include traditional oriental medicine in the nation's public health insurance system, as they consider the field to be less scientific and vital.

In South Korea, at least 10,584 out of 33,836 medical facilities closed their doors and over 28,000 doctors took part in the strike.

"It will be difficult for doctors to gain the people's trust by staging a collective act that can possibly threaten patients lives and health," Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said.