South Korea renews calls for doctors to join talks, resolve prolonged walkout

Seoul, Oct 10 (IANS) South Korea's Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo on Thursday renewed calls for the medical community to join talks without preconditions to help resolve a prolonged walkout by trainee doctors.

"We ask the medical community to engage in dialogue without setting any preconditions or agenda," Park told a government response meeting, Yonhap news agency reported.

"Once we start a dialogue, we can resolve even the most complicated issues,” Park added.

Thousands of trainee doctors have been absent from their workplaces in a form of mass resignation since February, with the medical community calling for discussions on the agenda from scratch.

The health ministry, meanwhile, said that local emergency rooms are operating without major disruptions despite the challenging circumstances.

The number of average patients in emergency rooms with light symptoms came to 6,077 during the first week of October, down from 8,285 in the first week of February, according to the ministry data.

The number of patients in critical condition also fell slightly to 1,356 from 1,469 over the same period, the ministry added.

"Although some point out that the number of deaths in the country in the second quarter increased from the previous year, experts believe that a 1.1 per cent rise is not significant in terms of statistics," Park said.

Statistics Korea's data recently showed that the number of deaths in the country came to 84,147 in the second quarter, up 912 from a year earlier.

Park also pointed out that the number of deaths in emergency rooms during the March-July period fell 4.5 per cent on-year to 18,690.

Medical professors of Seoul National University, meanwhile, were set to participate in a debate session later in the day with government officials, including Jang Sang-yoon, the senior presidential secretary for social policy.

It will mark the first time a senior presidential secretary has participated in a debate session regarding medical reform.