Patients’ advocacy groups call on doctors to end walkout

Members of more than 90 patient advocacy groups staged a rally in central Seoul on Thursday, calling for doctors to end the ongoing walkout that has disrupted public health services for nearly five months. The protest, including members from the Korea Alliance of Patients Organization and the Korean Organization for Rare Diseases, came as trainee doctors have left their worksites since late February, causing disruptions in major hospitals, including cancellations and delays in surgeries. "Under no circumstances should medical services for the patients be suspended, nor should there be any indication that they could be stopped, causing anxiety," the groups said in a joint statement. "Patients and their families, as well as the public, are experiencing anger, anxiety and fatigue amid the conflict between the irresponsible government and reckless trainee doctors and medical professors," they added. The rally came amid sluggish progress between the government and the medical community to launch a dialogue, wi th medical professors, who serve as senior doctors at general hospitals, also recently joining trainee doctors' walkout in solidarity. While the medical community formed a committee to establish a unified representative body for doctors, trainee doctors and medical students have been boycotting the initiative, claiming it fails to adequately reflect their voices. Amid the lingering dispute, senior doctors at Asan Medical Center, one of the five largest hospitals in Seoul, began reducing patient care on Thursday, claiming that this measure aims to focus on treating critically ill patients amid the ongoing medical vacuum. Doctors at Severance Hospital, Gangnam Severance Hospital, and Yongin Severance Hospital have also been suspending the treatment of outpatients, non-emergency surgeries and other services since late last month. Medical professors at Korea University and Chungbuk National University have vowed to launch walkouts starting July 12 and 26, respectively. Source: Yonhap News Agency