Ruling party-led consultative body on doctors' walkout to be launched this week

Officials move a patient to a hospital emergency room in Seoul, Nov. 8. Yonhap The ruling People Power Party (PPP) said Sunday it will launch a consultative body with the government and doctors' groups this week to resolve a prolonged walkout by trainee doctors, calling for the main opposition party's participation.

Thousands of trainee doctors have left their workplaces in the form of a mass resignation since February in protest of the government's decision to raise the medical school quota by around 2,000 annually for the next five years or so, causing major disruptions to the national health care service. In an effort to seek a breakthrough, the ruling party will launch the entity Monday, which will involve Prime Minister Han Duck-soo; Sung Tae-yoon, the presidential chief of staff for policy; Education Minister Lee Ju-ho; and Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong, as well as party lawmakers. Although the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) had initially agreed on the move, it has stayed lukewarm, citing the lack of participation by trainee doctors.



From the medical community, one group of medical school deans and another group representing medical researchers will join the body, but the group for junior doctors and the Korea Medical Association, Korea's largest group of doctors, have boycotted the initiative. "We will send a request to the DPK for its participation. The new body is meant to discuss all issues without any preconditions," PPP lawmaker Kim Sang-hoon said.

The medical community has demanded that the government revise the hike in the medical school quota from scratch, but the government has refused to adjust the 2025 quota and instead said it would revisit the quota hike plan for 2026 and beyond. (Yonhap).