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Yoon calls for utmost efforts to protect people’s lives amid threat of doctors’ walkout

February 19, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol called on the government Monday to make utmost efforts to protect the people’s lives and health amid a looming walkout by doctors protesting a planned increase in the medical school enrollment quota, his office said.

Yoon issued the call during his weekly meeting with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, according to presidential spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung.

“Please make utmost efforts in the response to protect the people’s lives and health,” he was quoted as saying.

Trainee doctors at the country’s five biggest hospitals are set to submit their resignation letters en masse later Monday and walk off the job starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday to protest the government’s plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 next year from the current 3,058.

The government argues an increase is necessary to address the shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas and in essential medical fields, while doctors’ groups counter a better solution would be to boost their compensation and ensure protection against malpractice suits, among other things.

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a government-public debate on medical reform issues at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, in this file photo taken Feb. 1, 2024. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a government-public debate on medical reform issues at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, in this file photo taken Feb. 1, 2024. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)