South Korea doctors offer to resign amid spat with government, raising worries about medical service

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Trainee doctors in South Korea began resigning en masse Monday in protest of a government medical policy, causing reported delays in surgeries and other treatments at hospitals, though no major disruption in the country’s medical service has yet occurred.

Doctors’ groups and the government have been squabbling over a government plan to increase the number of medical school admissions by 2,000, starting from next year.

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Health authorities say it’s urgent to have more doctors considering South Korea’s fast-aging population. They say the number of doctors in the country relative to the size of the population is among the lowest in the developed world.