SEOUL: South Korea said Monday it’ll withdraw its earlier plan to suspend licenses of striking doctors to resolve the country’s months-long medical impasse.
Health Minister Cho Kyoo Hong said Monday the government has decided not to suspend their licenses of the strikers, regardless of whether they return to their hospitals or not.
He said the government’s decision is meant to address a shortage of doctors treating emergency and serious patients and restore a training system to add more professional doctors.
More than 13,000 junior doctors, who are medical interns and residents, walked off the job in February in protest of the government’s plan to sharply boost school admissions. Their walkouts have significantly burdened operations of university hospitals where they had worked while training.