SEOUL - The South Korean government on Feb 29 held its first talks with doctors who have walked off the job in protest against a plan to increase places at medical schools, as a deadline looms for them to return to work – or face punishment.

The Health and Welfare Ministry said on the morning of Feb 29 that it proposed talks to address the 10-day walkout by about 9,000 trainee doctors.

The labour action has led to about a 50 per cent reduction in surgical procedures, people being turned away from emergency rooms, and strains on the healthcare system, the government said.

Neither side has commented on the talks that have been ongoing since the afternoon of Feb 29.

Only five or six trainee doctors showed up at the meeting that the government had invited at least 94 doctors to, in a bid to persuade them to return, the Yonhap news agency reported, underscoring a lack of progress.

“Today is our last day of waiting for trainee doctors to make the right judgment and decision,” Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min said in a government meeting where he called for an end to the walkout. He said “desperate patients are waiting for surgeries”, and the government will work to improve labour conditions.

Vice-Health Minister Park Min-soo told reporters that the government plans to shorten working hours for trainee doctors, adding that nearly 300 have returned to work after taking part in the walkout.

President Yoon Suk-yeol’s government has stood firm on its plan to add 2,000 spaces at medical schools, from the current 3,058, to head off a shortage of doctors that ranks among the most acute in the developed world.

It has indicated a willingness to discuss the doctors’ concerns, such as low pay for trainees and making adjustments to the mechanisms for malpractice suits, but said more doctors are needed to address the demographics of a rapidly ageing country.

The biggest lobby group for doctors is pressing for the government to scrap its plan to increase enrolments, saying the move would not fix fundamental flaws such as a lack of specialists in certain fields that are seen as lower paying.

Mr Joo Soo-ho, a spokesman for the Korean Medical Association, said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Feb 28 that the group expects a major show of force at a rally on March 3, with some 20,000 doctors expected to attend.

Mr Yoon’s government has threatened to arrest and prosecute those who refuse to comply with the government order, and is looking at suspending the doctors’ licences for encouraging a labour action that it says defies medical regulations.

There has been no clarity about the details of the actual deadline, but the government has indicated that if doctors are not back at their posts by March 1, they will be in defiance of orders to return to work – and risk having their medical licences suspended.

Earlier this week, Mr Yoon’s government showed it was ready to bring down the hammer when it filed a criminal complaint against five doctors it suspects of encouraging the mass walkout.

This is the first legal step that could lead to the stripping of medical licences. Polling indicates wide support among the public for the government plan.

Critics of the walkout contend that the labour action may be more about protecting the earning power of doctors, which ranks near the top among Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, rather than improving the quality of South Korea’s healthcare system.

Mr Yoon has seen his support rate rise to a three-month high in a weekly tracking poll from Gallup Korea as he has not bowed to pressure to scrap or reduce his plan to increase medical school places.

This could help his conservative People Power Party in April elections, where it is trying to take control of Parliament from the progressive Democratic Party. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS