Home > National > Social Affairs

KMA declares indefinite strike from June 27, demands gov't not treat them 'like slaves'

Published: 18 Jun. 2024, 19:35 Updated: 18 Jun. 2024, 20:04

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Rallying doctors picket on the road in Yeouido, western Seoul on Tuesday to protest against the government. [YONHAP]

The nation’s largest doctors’ group, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), declared on Tuesday that doctors would go on an indefinite strike starting June 27, ignoring a presidential warning against collective action.

Over 12,000 doctors gathered on the streets of western Seoul and accused the government of destroying the medical system during a protest organized by the KMA on the same day.

Lim Hyun-taek, the KMA's president, said that doctors would “indefinitely strike” if the government did not accept their “fair demands,” namely, renegotiation of the medical school quota hike, amendment of medical policy packages and nullification of all administrative penalties on junior doctors and medical students.

In his opening speech to the rally, Lim also demanded the government “respect doctors as professionals saving people’s lives, not as slaves.” He added that the protest conveyed the voices of some 140,000 doctors nationwide.

Lim Hyun-taek, president of the Korean Medical Association, speaks during a rally on Tuesday in western Seoul. [YONHAP]

He also accused the government of treating striking junior doctors as “runaway slaves.”

He said doctors would continue to resist until the government’s attitude changes, adding that doctors should “join forces to save public medical services from the government's dictatorship.”

Hwang Kyu-seok, chief of the Seoul Medical Association, said it was “heartbreaking” to leave patients behind to protest.

While noting that the public has “undeniable rights to receive treatments,” he said the Korean government "bears the duty to protect those rights and the public's lives.”

Doctors working at hospitals in far-flung regions such as South Jeolla and Gyeongsang traveled across the country on Tuesday to join the protest.

The densely packed protesters formed a 500-meter (0.31-mile) line that filled three car lanes.

Protesting doctors take their seats underneath trees in a rally on Tuesday in Yeouido, western Seoul. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

The KMA distributed to protestors paper hats bearing the slogan, “Deterring the collapse of the medical system,” and pocket signs that read, “Meddling in the medical system and education results in the collapse of essential medical fields.”

As the daytime high reached 32.9 degrees Celsius (91.2 degrees Fahrenheit), hundreds of protesters stayed outside the reserved rally area and took spots under sunshades or trees.

“I have decided to join the protest to make sure junior doctors' voices are heard,” Yoon Myung-ki, a junior doctor at Asan Medical Center, told the Korea JoongAng Daily at the rally.

“Junior doctors have been telling the government to scrap its entire medical policy package since February," Yoon said, arguing that junior doctors are "not just opposing medical quota hikes."

Yoon said the fundamental cause of the current standoff was the “direction of health policies" and that "poor labor conditions did not drive thousands of junior doctors out of their hospitals."

Medical professors at Asan Medical Center are set to strike starting July 4.

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

At a Cabinet meeting earlier on Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol warned that a “stern response” would be "inevitable" if doctors illegally refuse to treat patients by going on strike, accusing medical professionals on walkout of "ignoring their obligations to protect public health."

Yoon also “deeply regretted” that medical professors began striking on Monday and that the KMA persuaded private practitioners to close their clinics on Tuesday as a means of protest.

On the same day, the Health Ministry explained why it believed private clinic closures are “illegitimate.”

During a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters briefing, Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang said private clinics usually have one doctor. If that doctor strikes, the clinic cannot treat patients.

He said that general hospitals could not be accused of “illegally refusing treatment” because hospitals themselves are not shutting down.

Even when some medical professors left, the remaining doctors could continue medical services, he said.

The deputy minister also warned the KMA for orchestrating the strike, saying the association could be “disbanded” if it continues actions not aligned with its social duty to enhance public health.

Jun said the ministry could issue a correction order to the KMA to prevent public inconveniences due to the group's “illegal” strike.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, only 7.6 percent of 13,756 junior doctors nationwide showed up at work on Monday.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]