“About 12,000 medical interns and residents in South Korea have been on strike for six weeks, causing hundreds of cancelled surgeries and other treatments at university hospitals. In support of their action, many senior doctors at their teaching schools have also submitted resignations though they haven’t stopped treated patients.” -ABC News
It is a one man battlefield between the government and the people for doctors. Doctors deserve to be heard, understood and embraced for the love and sacrifice they put in their work. They deserve a appreciation for their hard days work through a regulated pay of wages and periodical leaves with family holidays. The reality is bleak and a far outcry.
We have a broken healthcare system everywhere, it fails us one way or another, we can see a similar pattern of anomalies globally. Here, in Korea it’s the doctors. The journey ahead is far from over. Gruelling night shifts accompanied by hectic schedules with lack of rests in between gives us a ready to drop doctor. A doctor that’s in despair. A doctor that feels there is a loss of freedom of speech and expression. We have all been there.
Funnily enough, this problem could be easily solved if we had break hours for doctors with an annual leave which hospitals do not provide! Medical school in Korea takes six years, including the additional two preclinical years. If we were planning on increasing the quota for a higher intake, this will take an estimated period of 6-7 years to fill up the already existing empty spots left out by interns and senior doctors.
South Korea has 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people. In this current time period of 6-7 years, there would be much more lag in patient waiting timings than ever before. There would be an undersupply of doctors in particular specialities like emergency medicine. Suspending medical licenses will make things worse in progression. Incentives could be provided to encourage doctors to work in rural areas.
All of these can radicalise the current outcomes, that the healthcare of an entire nation has fallen! The people have a choice to make but is it doctors or government?
Nivea Vaz
Manipal College of Medical Sciences
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