S.Korean police raid offices of doctors association as medics defy gov't deadline to end protest

By Anadolu staff

South Korean police on Friday carried out raids on offices of an association of doctors after the government's deadline to resume jobs ended on Thursday, following mass protests, local media said.

Doctors are protesting the government’s plans to increase the number of medical seats to address a shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas and essential medical fields such as high-risk surgeries, pediatrics, obstetrics, and emergency medicine. Doctors, however, demand that the government rather focus on improving compensation to induce more physicians to practice in such unpopular areas.

Police raided some offices of the Korean Medical Association, the country's largest doctors group, over the complaint of the Health Ministry, the Seoul-based Yonhap News agency reported.

The Health Ministry lodged a criminal complaint against the association's emergency committee chief, Kim Taek-woo, and four other former leaders, accusing them of instigating the trainee doctors' mass resignations and protest.

However, there have been no reports of the arrest of any leaders of the doctors association.

The latest development came after the government deadline for protesting doctors to resume work ended on Thursday. The government had warned that it would take action, including cancellation of their licenses, in case the doctors did not resume work.

But most trainee doctors, who walked off their jobs to protest against the government's policy, showed little sign of going back to work, according to the agency.

South Korea has some 13,000 trainee doctors. The government wants to add 2,000 more seats to 3,058 students enrolled annually.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid