South Korea opens hotline to support doctors defying walkout

South Korea’s government opened a hotline for doctors on Tuesday that the health minister said was intended to support physicians who faced harassment or peer pressure if they chose not to join a mass walkout over healthcare reform plans.
Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong defended the reforms, which include boosting the number of medical school students, as beneficial for the work conditions of intern and resident doctors, a key demand of the nearly 12,000 trainees who have left their posts.
Cho accused some young doctors of harassing trainees who had decided not to take part in the walkout or were hoping to return to work.
“The government will take care so that trainee doctors can return to work and remain by the patients without worry,” he told a government meeting monitoring the doctors’ action, referring to the hotline.