No less than 7,800 interns and resident doctors have resigned in a protest against working conditions.
The doctors said they were overworked, underpaid and unheard working over 100 hours a week compared to shifts of 60 hours or less by their US counterparts and demand their pay and working conditions should be the priority instead of the government’s popular plan to boost the number of physicians.
Senior doctors and private practitioners have not walked out but have held rallies urging the government to scrap its plan, with 400 gathering in Seoul on yesterday.
Reacting, South Korea’s government gave the doctors until the end of February for governors to return to work or risk being punished for staging a week-long protest.
