SEOUL, (South Korea) : Police raided some offices of the current and former leaders of a mainstream doctors’ association today (Mar 1) after they were accused of violating medical laws amid an ongoing mass walkout by trainee doctors.
Earlier today, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency sent investigators to several offices, including that of the emergency committee of the Korean Medical Association (KMA) and the Seoul Medical Association, to secure relevant information from the mobile phones and computers of the officials, according to Yonhap news agency.
On Tuesday, the health ministry filed a police complaint against the KMA’s emergency committee chief Kim Taek-woo; two others members of the KMA leadership; a former KMA chief; and Lim Hyeon-taek, the chief of the Korean Pediatric Society.
The ministry accused them of instigating the trainee doctors’ mass resignations by expressing support and providing legal assistance in the government’s first legal action taken in connection with the walkout.
The investigation came as nearly 10,000 of intern and resident doctors have stayed away from their jobs at general hospitals nationwide since Tuesday last week in their collective action protesting the government’s plan to hike the medical school admission quota by 2,000 seats next year to address shortages of doctors.The current quota is 3,058.
The government had given the striking interns and resident doctors until the end of yesterday to return to work or face punitive action, such as the suspension of their medical licenses, Yonhap reported.
So far, 294 out of around 9,076 protesting doctors have returned to work, and there seems to be no signs of them ending the walkout altogether, health ministry and hospital officials said.
South Korea has around 13,000 trainee doctors nationwide.
Source: New Straits Times
