I am living in a country where strike is illegal: Korea. Not north, the SOUTH

  Sharing this for my foreign friends who may not be aware of the current situation in Korea:

We, Korean medical students, all decided to take our semester off to protest against the newly proposed medical policies by the Korean government. The government is now attempting to forcibly increase medical student admissions under the guise of 'supplying regional doctors and essential medical service providers (such as ER and CS) shortage', disregarding any potential impact on the quality of medical education and the economic supply and demand dynamics within hospitals.

The primary solution to this issue should be supporting local doctors and essential medical service providers, rather than simply increasing the number of medical students. Ultimately, the government is implementing these policies just as populist measures (because medical school is the most popular one in Korea). 

Additionally, they are currently implementing policies to easily revoke doctors' licenses through lawsuits and hold doctors responsible for compensating not only for medical accidents but even for patient' poor prognoses (without any fault). They claim that they can protect the doctors through the new policies, but there is never a realistic and effective policy of protecting doctors. Consequently, we are even more discouraged from pursuing specialties in 'essential medical services(필수과)' due to the heightened risk of litigation. We are certain that these policies will undermine the current medical system, so we earnestly seek to prevent this outcome. 

Currently, not only medical students but also medical specialists are collectively submitting resignations and going on strike to oppose this policy. However, the problem is that the government is notifying these doctors of license suspensions as administrative measures to condemn their collective actions. Is there any country in the world where the government order can override the human right to strike? Is this truly the land of democracy?

Please, raise awareness about the wrongdoings in South Korea. This goes beyond healthcare issues; it's a matter of human rights. Please, save both South Korea's healthcare and everyone within this flawed healthcare system.

Korea is maintaining a very low cost of medical care through the strenuous efforts of medical faculties, and these chronic issues MUST BE CORRECTED. 

If there is any advice or evidence to demonstrate that these policies will ultimately fail to achieve their intended goals, please help us in conveying this message to the government and persuading the citizens.

https://v.daum.net/v/20240219183029137

In this news, there is this paragraph:

복지부는 지난 6일 의대 증원 발표 이후 의협이 총파업 등 집단행동 조짐을 보이자 의료법 제59조에 의거해 집행부를 상대로 '집단행동 및 집단행동 교사 금지 명령'을 내렸다. 의료법 59조는 의료인이 정당한 사유 없이 진료를 중단하거나, 의료기관 개설자가 집단 휴업해 환자 진료에 막대한 지장을 초래하면 복지부 장관이나 지자체장이 의료인이나 의료기관 개설자에게 업무개시명령을 할 수 있게 규정했다. 명령을 위반할 경우 의료법에 따라 1년 이하 면허정지 또는 3년 이하 징역이나 3000만원 이하 벌금에 처할 수 있다.

and it means:

After the announcement of the medical school expansion on the 6th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued a "Prohibition Order on Collective Actions and Instructors of Collective Actions" against the executive branch based on Article 59 of the Medical Service Act, as the Korean Medical Association (KMA) showed signs of total strike and other collective actions. Article 59 of the Medical Service Act stipulates that if medical professionals discontinue treatment without justifiable reasons or if the operators of medical institutions collectively suspend operations causing significant disruptions to patient treatment, the Minister of Health and Welfare or the head of local government may issue an order for them to resume operations. Violation of this order may result in a license suspension for up to one year, imprisonment for up to three years, or a fine of up to 30 million Korean won according to the Medical Service Act.

all our endeavors to prevent and protect medical sites are being considered illegal.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a similar policy that led doctors to go on strike. At that time, most doctors either took leave and went on strike or worked at public health centers after the strike. However, these situations were hardly covered by the media, so the policy was still being introduced because no one other than doctors and medical students knew the situation. Since then, actual strikes began, and from that point on, the media and the government started to frame the doctors as greedy individuals who prioritize their own benefits over patients' lives. But WE ARE NOT.

please let people know the real situation occurring in Korea.

Real situations & informations about why Korean doctors on strike are Korean medical students are taking their semester off

 I am a medical student in Korea. We are not on strike or taking semester off for our own greed.... we are doing this to prevent the government ruining current medical system in Korea. a deep understanding of korean medical system and how hospitals here earn money is needed to get why we are doing protests

We call the doctors working in specialties like ER, pediatrics, GS and stuffs "필수과", literally meaning "vital specialties" and they are the ones who are working at a very low cost, in high risk of litigation, but chose the specialties just to save the patients in need. Most of the doctors now on strikes are them. It might sound quite contradictory, but if you slightly change your point of view, this also shows how much the policies the government suggest can ruin the medical system. We are protesting against two policies: one is about the number of admission of medical school, and the other is the policies called "필수의료패키지" (policies package for vital specialties). I personally think the latter one is a bigger problem. Most of the doctors and medical students, who are really working in the medical environment, are sure that these policies will ruin Korean medical systems. For example, there are two kinds of medical costs that hospitals can get in Korea, one is called "급여" and the other is called "비급여". The costs of medical practices held as "급여" are all decided by the government, and the cost is now IRRATIONALLY LOW so that if doctors give the medical practice, it becomes apparently deficit to the hospital. So they barely make up for the deficit by "비급여", of which the doctors can adjust the costs of medical services, or by donation given to the hospital. but the government is now trying to even regulate the costs of medical services provided as "비급여". Then, we cannot offer both services "급여" and "비급여", because neither can make up for the deficit or give sufficient amount of money to continuously run hospitals. Some media say Korean doctors earn like the biggest in the world, but that is never true. They should invest their life for 10 years to perform normal medical examination as a doctor, and regarding the cost of time and tuition fees, i am always feeling, as a medical student, this never is economically good way of earning money. Also, the hospitals are just barely maintaining current systems by volume sales at a low unit margin of profit, which is regulated by the government. That is why you can get a quick medical services in Korea, but cannot get sufficient time to exactly understand what surgery i am undergoing (explanation time before surgery, like in U.S.), because doctors are lack of time to explain all those things. I think this MUST BE CORRECTED for the patients, and the way of correcting this is by raising the payment of medical services that are regulated by the government. The "vital specialties" provides most of the services as "급여" form right now, and also, those services are full of risk of getting sued by their patients, so those are the reasons why many Korean medical students cannot dare to choose to get those specialties. The Korea media (especially KBS) is under the control of government, so they lose their neutral position, and most of the information provided by those Korean media are very limited. So normal citizens even in Korea are not well persuaded by doctors because we are lacking of media to convey our real messages. If you genuinely want to provide any REAL information about current MEDICAL situation, getting information through instagrams of medical students or doctors would be better, or if i can help a bit i am really willing to offer information over current situations in Korea. Though my English is bad, if you need any help from me, i will try my best to convey our messages. I genuinely, sincerely wish people do not misunderstand what we are wanting to show through our strikes, protests and semester off.

https://www.koreatimes.net/ArticleViewer/Article/157537

he, the one who is gagged, is a pediatrician, and that means he is in one of the "vital specialties". The "vital specialties" doctor was trying to say to the Korean president, that this policy package is wrong, and we want to communicate, but as you can see, this is the way of how the current Korean government deal with their opposers. The real doctors, in the real medical site, knows that this is wrong, and trying their best to let people know that this is wrong. But our attempts are continuously being blocked by the government. You should know this truth.