The paper reporter Nan Boyi
Although the South Korean government and the medical community started final negotiations in the early morning of the 26th local time and reached an interim agreement, the negotiations between the two parties eventually broke down and the medical community will enter a collective strike on the 26th.
Yonhap News Agency reported on the 26th that according to news from the Korean Medical Association (KMA) and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the head of the Medical Association, Cui Daji, had an informal dialogue with the Minister of Health and Welfare Park Linghou from the night before to early morning. The two parties had originally agreed that before the new crown pneumonia epidemic stabilizes, the government will suspend the promotion of the expansion of medical schools and the medical profession will suspend the strike, but the Korean Interns Agreement will oppose this interim agreement.
As a result, the Korean Interns Association held an internal meeting on the provisional agreement, and finally expressed its opposition to the agreement, continuing to insist on the original position that "the government cannot stop the strike unless the government completely withdraws the expansion plan."
As a result, the Medical Association, which has 130,000 members, will conduct the second round of collective strike from the 26th to the 28th. The Interns Association has opened an unlimited strike on the 21st. In response, the Minister of Health and Welfare of South Korea issued an executive order on the 26th, requiring doctors and interns in Seoul City, Gyeonggi Province, Incheon City and other metropolitan hospitals to return to work immediately for follow-up visits from 8 am that day. The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that government staff will go to the scene to check whether the interns in the emergency room and intensive care unit of the corresponding hospital are reinstated, and will check the implementation after individual reinstatement orders are issued.
The South Korean government announced in July that the country plans to increase the annual enrollment quota of 3058 by the medical school by about 400 in the next 10 years. At the same time, for students majoring in epidemiology and other lower-paid majors and volunteering to go to rural areas to engage in public health Students who work are rewarded. In this regard, the South Korean medical community accused the South Korean government's enrollment expansion plan as a "sloppy unilateral decision." They believe that South Korea already has enough medical staff and existing doctors should be paid higher.
The outbreak in South Korea has recently rebounded, and there have been more than 100 new cases of new coronary pneumonia in a single day for the 12th consecutive day. From 00:00 on the 24th to 00:00 on the 25th local time, South Korea added 280 new confirmed cases, and more than 200 new cases were added in a single day for the eighth consecutive day. As of the 25th, South Korea has reported a total of 17,945 confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia, of which 310 died.