Korean doctors’ group offers walkout vote if government meets three demands

Lim Hyun-taek, chief of the Korean Medical Association, speaks during a press conference at the Korea Medical Association in Yongsan district, Seoul, June 9. Yonhap

The country’s biggest doctors’ group offered Sunday to hold a vote on whether to go ahead with a mass walkout this week if the government accepts three demands, including revisiting the issue of increasing medical school admissions.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) made the offer two days before it is scheduled to launch the walkout involving medical professors at the “Big 5” hospitals in Seoul, as well as community doctors.

The walkout will be in support of trainee doctors who have remained off the job since February in protest of the government’s medical school enrollment hike plan.

The KMA said it will give the government until 11 p.m. Sunday to respond to its three demands, which also include revising and supplementing key points in the government’s policy package for the essential medical services sector and canceling all penalties against the trainee doctors.

Should the government accept the demands, the KMA said it will hold a vote among all members Monday to decide whether to go ahead with Tuesday’s walkout.

If the government refuses, it said it will stage the walkout as planned indefinitely. (Yonhap)

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