South Korea’s government is investigating the death of an elderly woman who was unable to be admitted to any hospitals due to a doctors’ strike.
The individual passed away in the ambulance after their heart ceased functioning.
Almost 70% of young doctors have been on strike for the last week. They are protesting against the idea of training more doctors.
This has caused a lot of stress for emergency rooms, and the government says that doctors have put public health in danger.
On Friday,paramedics in Daejon tried to take a woman to seven hospitals, but they couldn’t because the hospitals didn’t have enough people to help or enough beds.
She called for help, but it took 67 minutes for her to get to the hospital. When she arrived, the doctors said she had already passed away.
Government people said they will look into the case, which has been talked about a lot in South Korean news.
This is thought to be the first death related to doctor strikes. Interns and residents are protesting because they are worried about having too many doctors and note nough jobs.
Emergency rooms are really busy because there aren’t enough staff to help. Operations have been delayed and patients had to go to different hospitals, as said by local news.
Over 9,000 doctors have decided not to go to work, and about 10,000 have quit at many hospitals in the country.
Interns and new doctors are usually the ones who work in the emergency room. Their absence has been noticed a lot because hospitals have had to change the way they work to make up for it,according to officials. Last week, the country’s healthcare system was in a very serious crisis.
The protests have gotten worse and turned into a serious disagreement, with officials saying they will take legal action.
On Tuesday, the government said they would take away doctors’ licenses if they didn’t come back to work by the end of the month.
President Yoon Suk-yeol said no to the doctors‘ request to stop his plan to increase the number of graduates by 60%. He believes the country needs more doctors because the population is getting older and there aren’t enough doctors to help.
South Korea has very few doctors compared to other countries in the OECD. There are only 2. 5 doctors for every 1,000 people. There aren’t enough doctors in important areas like having babies and taking care of children.
Over the years,different governments have tried to increase the number of students in medical schools, but they have faced strong opposition from groups of doctors.
Health experts say that doctors are putting their own financial interests before their patients’ well-being.
South Korea has a healthcare system that is mostly run by private companies. This means that the people who work in the medical field are not eager to have more competition and risk making less money.
“The South Korean people should not have to deal with difficulties just to satisfy the demands of the doctors,” said Prof. Jeong Hyoung-sun, a health administration professor at Yonsei University.