Seoul – Nearly 86 percent of South Koreans are urging junior doctors to end their ongoing strike and return to work, as shown by a recent poll.
According to Yonhap News Agency, which conducted the survey last week among 1,000 respondents, 85.6 percent of those surveyed expressed their desire for doctors to resume their duties, while only 12 percent supported the strike. The walkout, involving about 12,000 trainee doctors protesting against plans to increase medical school admissions by 2,000, has persisted for over three months, causing significant disruptions in hospitals and emergency rooms across the nation. Additionally, the poll revealed that 70.4 percent of respondents supported a Seoul appellate court’s decision to reject a suspension injunction filed by the doctors against the medical reform plan. The survey also found that 65 percent support the government’s plan to increase medical school seats, in stark contrast to the 29 percent siding with the doctors’ demands to abandon the reform.