SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) — South Korean Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Tuesday that the government will expand its financial support for emergency treatment services by another month. , since the massive strike by trainee doctors has interrupted health services in main hospitals for almost three months.
The government has pumped in 190 billion won (US$140 million) a month from the national health insurance system since February to support the operation of emergency rooms and increase compensation for emergency medicine doctors.
Cho said at an emergency response meeting that the government plans to expand such financial support within a month, starting Saturday, “in order to deal with the possibility of expanded emergency medical conditions.”
The government will deploy more military doctors to fill the “gap” in medical services affected by the strike, Cho said.
Some medical teachers, who are senior doctors in major hospitals, have warned that they will take a week’s vacation this month if the Government officially confirms the details of admissions to increase the number of students in medical colleges. , a thorny problem that sparked the strike.
Cho urged medical professors to stop the planned collective action, while reiterating a pledge to achieve medical reform.
Around 12,000 interns have left their workplaces since February 20 in protest at the plan to increase the number of medical students by 2,000, which has caused delays in medical treatments, and some emergency rooms have partially limited the treatment of critically ill patients.
Meanwhile, the medical community and health authorities are also at odds, as the Seoul High Court ordered the government to submit, by Friday, minutes and other documents to verify that the decision to increase, by 2,000, the number of medical students, was based on scientific criteria.
In a statement, the South Korean Medical Teachers Association criticized the government for inadequately keeping records of meeting minutes on medical reform, raising suspicions that the minutes may not exist.
The government previously acknowledged that the minutes of the meeting on medical matters with the Korean Medical Association (KMA) were not recorded, according to an agreement. Instead, he promised to provide minutes from other health policy committee meetings involving representatives of civic groups.
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