SEOUL - South Korean police on March 6 called in a doctor for questioning – the first to be summoned in connection with a mass walkout by junior medics – as the government approved the use of millions of dollars to ease service disruptions.

Thousands of trainee doctors quit and stopped working some two weeks ago to protest against government plans to increase medical school admissions to help deal with Korea’s fast-ageing society.

The government has repeatedly urged medics to return to work, but after a Feb 29 deadline passed with no change, Seoul said it was moving to suspend the medical licences of doctors on strike, and called for investigations into organisers.

The doctors’ walkouts are “illegal collective action that violates people’s rights to life”, said President Yoon Suk-yeol at a Cabinet meeting on March 6, adding that the government would use some 128.5 billion won (S$129 million) of state reserves to minimise service disruptions.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) – which has been at the forefront of the protest, claiming the reforms will erode service quality – has seen its offices raided, with top members sued over medical law violations and slapped with travel bans.

KMA’s Dr Joo Soo-ho has been accused of “aiding and abetting” the protests and appeared at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for questioning March 6.

“I came here with ease because literally, I have nothing to hide, nor reasons to hide,” the 65-year-old surgeon told reporters before the questioning.

“The charge of instigation can’t be established because we have never instigated” the junior medics to quit en masse, he said.

He said the doctors’ protest was “non-violent” and urged the government to renounce its “stubbornness” and negotiate.

The March 6 questioning is the first police probe into any medical personnel in connection with the ongoing walkouts by the young doctors.

President Yoon said the new funds would be earmarked to ensure “stable management of emergency treatments”.

The Finance Ministry said the money could be used to pay staff to work overtime, to cover the costs of dispatching military doctors to civilian hospitals, or for hiring temporary medical staff.

“We have no choice but to respond sternly to illegal collective action that takes people’s lives hostage in accordance with laws and principles,” Mr Yoon said.

“As I have stressed many times, medical reform is a task that cannot be delayed anymore,” he said.

The government is pushing to admit 2,000 more students to medical schools annually from 2025, to address what it calls one of the lowest doctor-to-population ratios among developed nations.

Despite the warning of licence suspension, junior doctors on strike have not returned to work on any significant scale, government data shows.

As at March 4, nearly 9,000 trainee doctors remained on walkouts, official figures show, a number that has not significantly changed over the last two weeks.

The mass work stoppage has taken a toll on hospitals, with crucial treatments and surgical procedures cancelled, prompting the government to raise its public health alert to the highest level.

Around half of the surgical procedures scheduled at some major hospitals have been cancelled since last week, according to the Health Ministry. AFP