President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Wednesday to respond strictly to an ongoing doctors’ walkout, as thousands of trainee physicians remained off their jobs for over two weeks in defiance of the government’s back-to-work order.
Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting at the government complex in Sejong, 113 kilometers south of Seoul, amid no signs of a breakthrough in the impasse over the government’s plan to increase admissions to medical schools by 2,000, starting next year.
“The doctors’ collective action is an act of abandoning one’s duties by oneself and shakes the foundations of liberalism and the rule of law,” he said. “An illegal collective action that takes the people’s lives hostage can only be responded to strictly in accordance with the law and principles.”
The government has begun taking steps to suspend the medical licenses of thousands of intern and resident doctors who have remained off their jobs despite the government’s promise not to hold them accountable if they returned to work by las
t Thursday.
Yoon said the government will collect its strength across all ministries and mobilize all possible resources to ensure the collective action does not threaten people’s lives or create a gap in medical services.
The Cabinet will approve 128.5 billion won (US$96.3 million) in reserve funds to help stabilize the operation of emergency treatments through the assignment of additional medical staff and compensation for those who remain dedicated to their jobs, he said.
Source: Yonhap News Agency