Doctors in South Korea return to work - after an 18-month walkout

The standoff was the longest in South Korea’s medical industry. It drew a severe backlash from the public. Photo / Supplied

An 18-month doctors’ walkout that rocked South Korea’s healthcare system began winding down yesterday, as two physicians’ groups said that interns and residents started returning to work at some university and private hospitals.

More than 10,000 young doctors — interns and residents — walked out in February 2024 after South Korea’s president at the time, Yoon Suk Yeol, proposed to dramatically alter the nation’s medical care landscape.

Thousands of medical students also joined in and stopped going to class.

The biggest point of contention was Yoon’s plan to increase medical school admissions by around 65% for the next five years.

Doctors argued that the move would diminish the quality of healthcare without solving ongoing issues in the industry.

Yoon’s government, they said, failed to address inequalities in the profession that translated to some emergency care and paediatric doctors being overworked and underpaid, at times clocking in over 80 hours a week for monthly pay of about US$3000 ($5125).

For months, neither side budged.

The government ordered striking doctors to return to work, but most refused.

Yoon then threatened to cancel the medical licences of thousands of doctors and sue those who defied return-to-work orders.

During the standoff, the longest in South Korea’s medical industry, the nation’s healthcare system cracked but did not collapse.

While surgeries and treatments were postponed by some hospitals for months, some nurses filled in the roles of physicians, and military doctors were deployed to civilian hospitals.

The protest drew a severe backlash from the public, which grew more heated over time at both the doctors and the government for putting patients’ lives at risk.

In April — days after Yoon was removed from office for declaring martial law — the authorities reversed course and brought the admissions quota for 2026 back to its original number of around 3000 students. But it left quotas for subsequent years open to negotiation.

The new government, led by President Lee Jae Myung, took a softer approach to talks. Last month, it said doctors who were on strike could return to work without repercussions.

With negotiations still pending, the decision for the physicians to return to work is “not without its shortcomings”, the Korean Medical Association said in a statement in August.

But “we’re glad that those at the head of training for young doctors have come to a conclusion”.

Doctors were returning to their posts on different days this week, depending on their experience, according to the Korea Intern Resident Association.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Jin Yu Young

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