South Korea orders doctors to return to work amid prolonged strike

SEOUL: The South Korean government issued a return-to-work order for private practitioners on Wednesday as more doctors including medical professors join the months-long strike to protest increasing medical school admissions.

The government will strictly enforce regulations against medical institutions that closed illegally, the health ministry said in a statement.

Around 4 percent of some 36,000 private clinics had notified the government of plans to be closed on Tuesday to take part in the protest, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said.

But about 5,379 medical institutions were closed nationwide, or 14.9 percent of 36,059 institutions that were checked, as of 4 pm on Tuesday, the health ministry confirmed.

President Yoon Suk Yeol said the doctors’ strike was “regretful and disappointing”.

“(The government) has no choice but to sternly deal with the illegal acts neglecting patients,” Yoon said during a cabinet meeting, while offering to work together if the doctors return to work.

Under the law, doctors defying the return-to-work order can face suspension of their licences or other legal repercussions.

The government had previously issued a return-to-work order to striking trainee doctors before withdrawing it earlier this month as an olive branch.

The Korea Medical Association, a critic of the government’s reforms, was leading Tuesday’s strike. The group also staged a protest in Seoul on the same day, calling for reconsideration of increasing medical school admissions.