(2nd LD) Trainee doctors set to return to work Tuesday, urge measures to protect medical students

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SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) -- Thousands of trainee doctors will return to work this week, ending a weekslong collective action over a controversial medical reform plan, their representatives said Monday.

An emergency committee under the Korean Intern and Resident Association (KIRA) representing interns and residents at general hospitals said its members will return to hospitals as of 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The KIRA members, however, will launch an escalated collective action if the government does not come up with further measures within two weeks to support medical students who did not apply for a state medical licensing exam set to be held Tuesday.

The decision comes after the country's largest doctors' association, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), signed a deal with the ruling party Friday to end their nationwide strike.

The KMA had joined the collective action with junior doctors but agreed to return to work after the government backed down and promised to put the medical reform plans on hold in a joint effort for the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The government earlier said it will hold the exam as scheduled after most medical students said they will not take the exam in protest over the agreement.

"We will continue further collective action if students are not allowed to retake the exam or the test is postponed," said Park Ji-hyun, a spokeswoman for the committee.

Thousands of trainee doctors working at general hospitals began the strike on Aug. 21 to protest the government's medical reform scheme that calls for increasing the quota for medical students, establishing a new public medical school and giving medical insurance coverage to oriental medicine treatment.

Friday's deal raised hope for the normalization of hospital operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but it angered the junior doctors, who said their views were not properly reflected in it.

KIRA and medical students have balked at the KMA's deal with the government, saying they will continue to reject the state medical licensing exam in protest over the agreement.

The exam, however, will be carried out as scheduled, the health ministry reaffirmed. A total of 446 out of 3,172 exam applicants, or 14 percent, will take the exam, according to the ministry.

The government and hospitals have been urging doctors to halt the strike, as their collective action has disrupted medical services at hospitals and other medical centers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

khj@yna.co.kr
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