South Korea trainee doctors to quit in protest over plan to add physicians

About 20% of South Korea’s trainee doctors said on Friday they would resign effective Tuesday to protest a government plan to admit more students to medical schools, saying this would hurt the national health insurance scheme.
The head of the Korea Interns and Residents Association (KIRA), Park Dan, said in a statement, representatives of the trainees, who work at the country’s five biggest hospitals, all in Seoul, have decided to leave their posts on Tuesday.
The government has said it will respond firmly to doctor strikes and vows to go ahead with the plan, which got strong public support in opinion polls last year.
The trainee doctors, estimated by media reports to number about 2,700, are about a fifth of the country’s interns and resident doctors. The system relies on them for emergency and acute healthcare, raising concerns about how the action could affect hospitals.