South Korea: Trainee doctor arrested for making 'blacklist' of non-striking colleagues


Seoul, Sep 21 (IANS): A trainee doctor has been arrested for allegedly making and distributing a "blacklist" of colleagues who are not participating in an ongoing walkout by junior doctors over the government's medical reform plan, officials said on Saturday.

The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for the man, surnamed Jeong, Friday on charges of creating a list of doctors who either have not joined their striking colleagues or returned to work and distributing it online repeatedly, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The list, created in July, contains names, phone numbers and other personal information of non-striking doctors and was allegedly distributed with malicious intent in violation of the act on the punishment against stalking crimes.

It marked the first arrest of a doctor since February when a majority of South Korea's trainee doctors left their workplaces in the form of a mass resignation in protest of the state plan to raise the medical school quota by around 2,000 over the next five years or so to address the shortage of doctors.

Jeong also submitted his resignation, and the court cited risks of him destroying evidence, the officials said.

South Korea has experienced a healthcare service crisis amid a serious staff shortage nationwide and no immediate breakthrough has been made.

Doctors have demanded that the government withdraw the quota increase plan altogether and discuss the issue with them from scratch, claiming that the reform will compromise the quality of medical education and ultimately the country's medical services.

But the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol has said it is practically impossible to revisit the hike plan for next year, as the government already finalised a quota hike of some 1,500 students for 2025 and college entrance procedures have already begun.

 

  

Top Stories


Leave a Comment

Title: South Korea: Trainee doctor arrested for making 'blacklist' of non-striking colleagues



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.