SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea declared on Thursday a special emergency medical response period for two weeks in September and said it would use all available resources to ensure services, as a strike by young doctors increases strains on the medical system.
The government will also temporarily raise the fees doctors receive from health insurance around a national holiday period next week to “repay the dedication of the medical professionals even a little,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told a televised briefing.
South Korea’s health ministry said last week it was deploying military doctors to assist in some hospital emergency rooms due to a shortage of medical staff, but disputed a warning by some physicians that the system was on the verge of collapse.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Ed Davies and Lincoln Feast.)
