Doctors won’t be punished if they return in four days, but will face indictments and suspensions of licenses if they don’t meet the deadline, the government says.
If they purge all their future medical practitioners all they do is shoot themselves in the foot. I hope they realize they have the power here before they cave.
The government’s main desire is to increase the number of licenses handed out, since Korea’s population is aging and more and more doctors will be needed. Current doctors are less than thrilled about that, since more doctors means more competition and lower pay for them. To quote the article,
About 9,000 medical interns and residents have stayed off the job since early last week to protest a government plan to increase medical school admissions by about 65%
If you expect most of them to cave - and facing license suspension I’d imagine most would - then losing a relative handful of doctors that will be more than replaced within a few years is worth it from the government’s perspective.
