The doctors’ strike is set to intensify this Monday, March 25 in South Korea. After a month of strike and resignation of thousands of interns to oppose the reform of the admission quota in universities, more experienced practitioners joined the movement. They present their resignation in the face of the government’s desire to increase the number of medical students. The authorities refuse to give in and must soon announce the suspension of many resigned interns. The intensification of the social movement risks further disrupting the operation of major South Korean hospitals, to the dismay of patients with serious illnesses.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca
Ten years ago, Kim Sung-ju was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. However, he considers himself lucky, because at the worst of the illness, he did not have to face the consequences of social movement in addition to its treatment:
“ For patients who truly need chemotherapy, surgery or radiation therapy, almost all of these treatments are postponed. So it’s a very distressing situation. When you are seriously ill, you need to get the right treatment at the right time. There are also people who had to leave retirement homes and then died during the day. »
Despite his damaged vocal cords, he carries the voice of the sick. Kim Sung-ju is the president of the Korea Cancer Patients’ Rights Association. “ In other countries, doctors protest against the shortage of doctors or ask the government to provide them with more resources. But here you recruit more doctors and they abandon patients, interns flee and the entire medical system of the country is paralyzed, starting with the big hospitals “, he laments.
As the social movement intensifies, Kim Sung-ju denounces the choice of university professors and experienced doctors to join the interns’ strike: “ The decision to strike by professors at large hospitals and university hospitals is the equivalent of a captain abandoning his ship on the verge of capsizing. »
As of Tuesday, the government must implement measures to suspend resigning interns.
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