(3rd LD) Trainee doctors set to return to work Tuesday, urge measures to protect medical students

(ATTN: ADDS more info on return to work by doctors in last 3 paras, bottom photo)

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.

As of Monday, the health ministry said 6,725, or 72.8 percent, of 9,235 trainee doctors had not reported back for duty.

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.

Related to lingering tension regarding trainee doctors' return to work, a group of medical school deans and senior officials of national hospitals issued a statement urging concerted effort to deal with COVID-19 first.

"Once the coronavirus issue is resolved, there should be ample time to discuss outstanding issues that triggered the walkout," they said, adding doctors needed to show more patience and wait for positive results.

Later in the day, over 90 percent of the 512 interns and resident doctors at Seoul Asan Medical Center voted to return to work, although they made clear that this did not mean an end to their collective action. Trainee doctors at Seoul National University said they too will return to duty on Tuesday.

khj@yna.co.kr
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