(16 May 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seoul, South Korea – 16 May 2024
1. Various of South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo entering
2. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Han Duck-soo, Prime Minister:
"The court rejected the injunction sought by medical students, saying it may affect public welfare. We are deeply thankful for the wise ruling by the judicial branch. The original lawsuit still remains but because today’s ruling, the medical reform has overcome a big obstacle."
3. Wide of Han
4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Han Duck-soo, Prime Minister:
"Dear trainee doctors, now you must return. Listen to the judicial branch’s decision and people’s will. Stop the walkout and return to your hospitals. I also plead to medical students to return to your daily lives."
5. Various of Han
STORYLINE:
A South Korean appellate court has
rejected an injunction sought by doctors to suspend the government’s plan to increase medical school quota by 2,000.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo welcomed the ruling in Seoul Thursday, saying the government appreciated “the wise ruling by the judicial branch.”
He said the government would take steps to finalize medical school admission plans for the 2025 academic year.
Han also urged trainee doctors to end their walkout and come back to hospitals.
The striking doctors represent a fraction of all doctors in South Korea, estimated to number between 115,000 and 140,000. But in some major hospitals, they account for about 30% to 40% of doctors, assisting fully qualified doctors and department chiefs during surgeries and other treatments while training.
Their walkouts have caused cancellations to numerous surgeries and other treatments at their hospitals.
Officials say the plan is aimed at adding more doctors, because South Korea has one of the world’s fastest-aging populations and its doctor-to-population ratio is among the lowest in the developed world.
Doctors say schools aren’t ready to handle an abrupt increase in students and that it would ultimately undermine the country’s medical services. They say the government plan would also result in doctors performing unnecessary treatments because of greater competition. But critics argue that many doctors are mainly worried that more competition would lower their incomes.
Government officials earlier threatened to suspend the licenses of the striking doctors but later halted related administrative steps to facilitate dialogue with the strikers.
AP video shot by Yong-ho Kim
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