South Korea Gives Trainee Doctors Four Days to End Walkout
- Doctors can face arrest and loss of license over labor action
- Both sides appear to be digging as walkout nears second week
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South Korea called on about 9,000 trainee doctors who have walked off the job to return to work by Thursday without facing reprisals, trying to end a protest that has led to canceled surgeries and patients being turned away from emergency rooms.
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said Monday the government is making its “final appeal” to end the nearly weeklong walkout to protest its plan to increase the number of seats at medical schools by 2,000 from the current 3,058. The policy is aimed at heading off a doctor shortage that ranks as one of the most acute in the developed world, and is only expected to grow worse as South Korea faces a demographic crisis with one of the world’s fastest-aging populations.