South Korea orders doctors who joined protracted strike over medical school plan to return to work

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials issued return-to-work orders for doctors participating in a one-day walkout Tuesday as part of a protracted strike against government plans to boost medical school admissions, starting next year.

Since February, more than 12,000 trainee doctors have remained on strike amid a deepening standoff with government officials, who want to grow the country’s number of doctors by up to 10,000 by 2035. Many reject the plan, saying schools won’t be able to handle the increased flow and that the quality of the country’s medical services would suffer.

About 4% of the country’s 36,000 private medical facilities, categorized as clinics, have told authorities they would participate in a one-day strike on Tuesday, according to South Korea’s Health and Welfare Ministry.

The strike came a day after hundreds of medical school professors at four major hospitals affiliated with Seoul National University entered an indefinite walkout, raising concerns about disruptions in medical services.

South Korean Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang said the one-day strike by clinics and the walkout by SNU-affiliated medical professors haven’t immediately caused significant problems in medical services.

He accused the protracted strike of threatening to destroy a “trusting relationship between doctors and patients our society has built for long.”

“We cannot allow unlimited freedom to the medical profession,” Jun said on Tuesday. “Since they benefit from a medical licensing system that limits the supply (of doctors) and ensures their monopoly of the profession, doctors must uphold their end of professional and ethical responsibilities and legal obligations under the medical law.”

Under South Korean law,