SEOUL, Feb  21, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Pregnant women had C-sections cancelled
and cancer treatments were postponed Wednesday as the number of South Korean
trainee doctors to walk off the job over proposed reforms swelled, officials
and local reports said.

More than 8,800 junior doctors -- 71 percent of the trainee workforce --
have now quit, said Seoul's Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo, part of a
spiralling protest against government plans to sharply increase medical school
admissions.

Seoul says the reforms are essential, citing the country's low doctor
numbers and rapidly ageing population, but doctors claim the changes will hurt
service provision and education quality.

Critics say doctors are mainly concerned the reform could erode their
salaries and social prestige, and the plan enjoys broad public support among
South Koreans, many of whom are fed up with long wait times for many medical
services.

Park said Wednesday that 7,813 trainee doctors had not shown up for work --
an almost five-fold increase from the first day of the action Monday -- despite
the government ordering many of them to return to their hospitals.

"The basic calling of medical professionals is to protect the health and
lives of the people, and any group action that threatens this cannot be
justified," Park said.

The doctors' walkout was a violation of South Korean law, as medical
workers cannot refuse so-called return to work orders "without justifiable
grounds", he said.

South Korea's general hospitals rely heavily on trainees for emergency
operations and surgeries, and local reports said cancer patients and expectant
mothers needing C-sections had seen procedures cancelled or delayed, with
scores of cases causing "damage", Park said.

"My surgery was canceled on the day of admission due to the doctors'
strike, and I'm still dumbfounded," wrote @August_holiday on social media
platform X.

Another user on South Korea's Naver web portal said her mother's
long-awaited cerebral aneurysm surgery had been abruptly delayed.

"I'm furious that (the doctors) can act so irresponsibly," user @488653
wrote.

Junior doctors claim the new medical education reforms are the final straw
for many workers in a profession already struggling with tough working
conditions, such as in emergency rooms.

"Despite working more than 80 hours a week and receiving compensation at
minimum wage level, trainee doctors have been neglected by the government until
now," the Korea Interns and Residents Association said in a statement.

The over-reliance on trainee doctors in the current healthcare system was
not reasonable or fair, they added.

Nurses, who have been left in charge during the strike, urged doctors to
return to work, even as they sympathised with their fight against the reform.

"Do not ignore your conscience toward the patients being left behind," the
Korean Young Nurses Association wrote in a social media post.