SEOUL, Police will launch an investigation into a threatened walkout by neighborhood doctors if a related complaint is filed, a senior police official said Monday, a day after the country’s largest doctors’ lobby called a one-day strike later this month.

Members of the Korea Medical Association (KMA) voted Sunday to walk off their jobs on June 18 to protest the government’s medical reform plans, including a significant hike in the country’s medical school enrollment quota.

The threatened walkout is expected to strain the country’s health care system more at a time when operations at major hospitals have been crippled for months by a protracted walkout by trainee doctors protesting the increase in the number of medical school seats.

“Once they go into collective closures, we expect health authorities to issue a back-to-work order and related complaints will be filed,” the senior police official told reporters on condition of anonymity. “Should complaints be filed, we will conduct an investigation according
to law and procedures.”

After the KMA voted to go on strike, the government has vowed to deal sternly with the planned walkout and ordered community doctors to keep providing medical treatment and report to authorities when they close their businesses.

Source: Yonhap News Agency