SEOUL – South Korea will complete sending out this week its first licence suspension notices to thousands of doctors who have walked off their jobs in protest at a government plan to increase medical school enrolment.

The doctors who receive notices will have to submit their views to the government by March 25, and a failure to do so could ultimately lead to the suspension of their medical licences for several months, Yonhap News agency reported at the weekend, citing government and medical industry sources, and other local media.

About 90 per cent of the country’s 13,000 trainee doctors failed to report to work by the end of a February deadline set by the government, Yonhap said.

The walkout will soon enter its fourth week, with no signs of a quick ending.

Trainee doctors are similar to medical residents and play key roles in emergency care.

President Yoon Suk-yeol has stood by his plan to increase enrolment by 2,000 seats a year at medical schools from the current 3,058.

The government said the change is needed to ease a doctor shortage that is among the most acute in the developed world, and is essential for supporting the medical system in the rapidly ageing country. 

Mr Yoon’s government has threatened to revoke the licences of doctors for leading a labour action it says violates medical laws.

The notices are part of the procedure for suspending the licences of thousands of trainee doctors for three months for defying the return-to-work order, a move that could set them back on their career paths and affect employment prospects.

The labour action could widen next week, with academics from the Medical Professors Association of Korea group threatening to resign over the government plan, Yonhap said. 

The doctors contend the proposal to increase enrolments would not fix fundamental problems such as a concentration of doctors in urban areas and a lack of specialists in fields seen as risky and lower paying. They want to see changes to the malpractice system that give more protection to physicians.

Polling indicates the public is siding with the government, seeing the reform as a way to cut waiting times for health care.

South Korean doctors rank near the best paid among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in comparison with average wages.

This has led to criticism the labour action may be more about protecting their earning power rather than improving the healthcare system. 

Mr Yoon’s approval rating has climbed during the walkout to its highest since July 2023. This could help his conservative People Power Party in April elections as it tries to take control of Parliament from the progressive Democratic Party. BLOOMBERG