SEOUL, Some patients expressed anxiety Tuesday as community doctors voted to stage a one-day strike next week, although it remains uncertain how many doctors would join the labor action.

The government has ordered community doctors to keep providing medical treatment as they are set to take a day off Tuesday amid a protracted standoff with trainee doctors over a plan to boost the number of medical students.

“While I am not suffering from a life-threatening disease, the situation is still frustrating,” a person who visits clinics two or three times a week said on the condition of anonymity.

Another person who suffers from depression said, “I can respect their strike, but it is also disappointing as doctors are turning their backs on patients who cannot live a day without medicine.”

Next week’s planned strike comes in support of trainee doctors who have left their worksites since late February in protest of the government’s medical reform.

Despite the standoff, the government finalized the admissions quot
a hike of some 1,500 students for medical schools late last month, marking the first such increase in 27 years.

Some community doctors were pessimistic over the planned strike.

“As community doctors are also self-employed and operate businesses within neighborhoods, they can suffer massive losses even by shutting down for a day,” a community doctor said.

Community doctors staged a similar strike in 2020 over a botched plan to increase the number of medical students.

About 33 percent of clinics closed their doors on the first day at that time, but the rate fell to 6.5 percent two weeks later.

Source: Yonhap News Agency