South Korea’s Doctors’ Strike

Walking into a university hospital in South Korea today, one is faced with the brutal reality of the country’s current medical industry: patients waiting in vain for their treatments, being thrown into the pits of devastation with canceled surgeries, and being neglected for threateningly-long hours when seeking emergency care. Almost 12,000 doctors, particularly trainees, have walked out from their offices since February 20, 2024 in protest of President Yoon’s recent policy rollout of adding 2000 medical school places starting in 2025. Yoon’s reformation was proposed in an attempt to address the shortage of doctors in rural areas in the face of increasing demand for medical services by South Korea’s rapidly aging population, but it is instead exacerbating the shortage as it lacks consideration of the profit-oriented culture of the industry that serves as the root of the problem.