The health ministry on Thursday once again called on a major lobby group for doctors to withdraw a plan to hold an indefinite strike next week and to come forward for dialogue. The Korea Medical Association (KMA) has threatened to launch an indefinite strike next Thursday in protest of the government's decision to drastically raise the medical school admissions quota. "The KMA should listen to desperate calls by patients for withdrawing the strike decision," Kim Guk-il, a senior official of the ministry, said at a press briefing. "The government is ready to have dialogue with the medical circle regardless of formats and agendas. I ask the doctors' group to come forward to address the matter reasonably," he added. On Tuesday, the KMA led a one-day strike but only around 15 percent of community doctors joined the collective action, Kim said, expressing his gratitude to the majority of doctors for continuing to provide services to their patients. Medical professors, who serve as senior doctors at major hosp itals, will vote later in the day whether to join the KMA-led strike starting next week. The planned strike has deepened concerns over further disruptions to the health care system, as trainee doctors have remained off the job since late February, and the Seoul National University (SNU) hospitals suspended their operations indefinitely Monday, except for emergency rooms and services for critical patients. Other senior doctors were also to decide whether to join their SNU colleagues, hospital officials said. SNU medical professors will vote on whether to continue their strike through next week, with the result to be available as early as Friday. "We had a general meeting today, and there were various opinions. We will make a decision on whether we will stop the strike and what other options there are for us," an official said. The KMA is planning to launch a new medical communitywide response committee soon to be in charge of leading their anti-government movements. The envisioned entity would include me dical professors and other medical staff, though striking junior doctors have said they will not join the committee. Meanwhile, an association for seriously ill patients said Thursday it sent a request to the health ministry to hold a public hearing on allowing doctors with medical licenses issued from foreign nations to practice medicine in South Korea. "Hundreds of foreign medical license holders are currently staying here, and now is high time for the government to consider mobilizing them at an early date to fill the current medical service vacuum," the association said. In May, the government revised a regulation of the Medical Act that stipulates those who have foreign medical licenses are able to practice medicine in South Korea upon approval by the health minister when the country is in the highest medical disaster alert mode of "serious." Following the junior doctors' walkout, the government raised the national medical disaster alert to the highest level Feb. 23 and has activated an emergency res ponse mode. The health ministry said it does not have a plan to hold any public hearings on the matter and will review the possibility after closely monitoring the situation and various factors. Despite strong opposition from doctors, the government late last month finalized an admissions quota hike of some 1,500 students for medical schools, marking the first such increase in 27 years. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld and finalized the appellate court's decision to reject the injunction filed by trainee doctors and medical professors, calling for the suspension of the government's medical school admissions quota hike. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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