Foreign News
South Korean doctors strike in protest of plans to add more physicians
South Korea’s government has ordered more than 1,000 junior doctors to return to work after many staged walk-outs in protest of plans to increase the number of doctors in the system.
More than 6,000 interns and residents had resigned on Monday, said officials.
South Korea has one of the lowest doctor-per-patient ratios among OECD countries so the government wants to add more medical school placements. But doctors oppose the prospect of greater competition, observers say.
South Korea has a highly privatised healthcare system where most procedures are tied to insurance payments, and more than 90% of hospitals are private.
Its doctors are among the best-paid in the world, with 2022 OECD data showing the average specialist at a public hospital receives nearly $200,000 (£159,000) a year; a salary far exceeding the national average pay.
But there are currently only 2.5 doctors per 1,000 people – the second lowest rate in the OECD group of nations after Mexico. “More doctors mean more competition and reduced income for them, that is why they are against the proposal to increase physician supply,” said Prof Soonman Kwon, a public health expert at Seoul National University.
Patients and health officials expressed concerns on Tuesday as reports emerged of doctors declining to come into hospitals across the country.
Junior doctors form a core contingent of staff in emergency wards, and local media reported that up to 37% of doctors could be affected at the biggest hospitals in Seoul.
The health ministry said 1,630 doctors had not shown up to work on Monday, amid a wider group of 6,415 who had submitted resignation letters. Organisers had pledged an all-out strike from Tuesday.
“We are deeply disappointed in the situation where trainee doctors are refusing to work,” Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo had told reporters earlier this week. He also warned that the government may resort to legal means to get doctors back to work.
Under the country’s Medical Services Act, authorities have the power to revoke a doctor’s practicing licence over an extended labour action which threatens the health care system. The country has attempted prosecutions before in relation to other doctor protests- which were later dropped.
“We earnestly ask the doctors to withdraw their decision to resign en masse,” Mr Park said.
The government has consistently condemned the doctors’ opposition. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has said: “This is something that takes the lives and health of the people hostage”.
The extent of the strike’s impact so far is yet unclear, although officials had warned there could be delays to surgeries and gaps in care. Some hospitals have announced switching to contingency plans. The government has also fully expanded telehealth services.
The protests are similar to events in 2020, when up to 80% of junior doctors joined strikes against the government’s recruitment plans.
South Korean policy makers have tried for years to increase the number of trained doctors, as the country is dealing with a rapidly-ageing population which will put extra burden on the medical system. There’s a projected shortfall of 15,000 doctors by 2035.
The country also has critical gaps in care in remote areas, and in specialities such as paediatrics and obstetrics – which are seen as less lucrative fields compared to dermatology.
To combat this, President Yoon Suk-yeol has proposed adding 2,000 spots per year to medical schools – which currently take a cohort of just over 3,000 students every year – a rate that has not changed since 2006. It’s a policy very popular with the public – with local polls showing 70-80% of voters support it.
However the plan has been strongly opposed by the medical profession, with groups like the Korean Medical Association arguing an increase would be a strain on the money available under the national health insurance scheme.
The union has also argued that more doctors wouldn’t necessarily address the shortages in specific fields. It announced the strike action on Sunday after an emergency meeting with hospital representatives. While junior doctors are the first to strike there are fears that more across the profession will join too.
Doctors successfully staved off the government’s previous attempt to introduce more graduates in 2020. The government conceded at the time, partly due to the pressure of the Covid pandemic, commentators say.
“It is not easy to predict who will win this time,” said Prof Kwon. He noted that President Yoon “seems very determined” because the policy has provided a ratings-bump for an unpopular leader otherwise tarnished by some political scandals. “But a private sector dominated health system is quite vulnerable to physician strikes, i.e. it can be really shut down if doctors join full-scale strikes.”
(BBC)
An Australian couple have spoken of the “traumatic” moment the body of a dead passenger was placed next to them on a Qatar Airways flight.
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin, who were travelling to Venice for a dream holiday, told Australia’s Channel 9 a woman died in the aisle beside them during the flight from Melbourne to Doha.
The couple say cabin crew sat her corpse, which was covered in blankets, next to Mr Ring for the remaining four hours of the flight and did not offer to move him, despite there being empty seats.
Qatar Airways said it apologised for “any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused”, adding that it was in the process of contacting passengers.
Mr Ring said staff responded “in no time” when the woman collapsed, but that “unfortunately the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heart-breaking to watch,” he told the ‘A Current Affairs programme.
Cabin crew tried and failed to move her body away towards business class, he explained. “They tried to wheel her up towards business class, but she was quite a large lady and they couldn’t get her through the aisle.
“They looked a bit frustrated, then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me – my wife was on the other side, we were in a row of four.
“They said, ‘can you move over please?’ and I just said, ‘yes no problem’.
“Then they placed the lady in the chair I was in.”
Ms Colin said she was shocked when her husband said they were being asked to move up: “I said, ‘are they going to put her there?'”
While Ms Colin was able to move to an empty seat nearby, Mr Ring said he was not given the option to do so by cabin crew – even though there were vacant seats.
When the plane landed four hours later, he said passengers were asked to stay put while medical staff and police came on board.
“Ambulance officers started pulling the blankets off the lady,” Mr Ring said.
“I got to see her face.
“I can’t believe they told us to stay.”
The pair said they had not been contacted nor offered any support by Qatar Airways or Qantas, the airline through which they booked the flight.
“They have a duty of care towards their customers as well as their staff,” Mr Ring said.
“We should be contacted to make sure, do you need some support, do you need some counselling?
“I don’t really know how I feel and would like to speak to somebody to make sure I’m alright.”
Ms Colin called the experience “traumatic” and said: “We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol to look after the customers on board.”
In a statement, Qatar Airways said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight.
“We apologise for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused, and are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”
A Qantas spokesperson said: “The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.”
[BBC]
Millions of people are thought to be without electricity across Chile after a large nationwide power outage.
According to the national service for disaster prevention and response (SENAPRED), an area spanning most of the country is impacted, including the capital city, Santiago.
The exact scale of the outage, which began earlier on Tuesday, is not yet known but SENAPRED has said it covers the regions of Arica and Parinacota in the north to Los Lagos in the south.
Reuters news agency has also reported that the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida, is without power, citing a source close to the matter.
LATAM Airlines said that some of its flights may also be disrupted while power supplies were down, and urged passengers to check their journey status.
In a post on X, the Santiago Metro operator said its service had been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing power outage, with stations being evacuated and closed.
Footage from the city showed passengers evacuating stations by walking up switched-off escalators, while traffic signals were also shown not working.
There were also long queues for buses which were still running on the city’s roads.
Maria Angelica Roman, 45, told AFP news agency: “They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home because all the buses are full.”
Chile’s interior minister, Carolina Toha, also posted on X to say that a meeting would be called to discuss ongoing measures to restore services.
SENAPRED added that electricity companies across the impacted area were investigating the fault and attempting to restart services, and no emergency situations had been reported.
[BBC]
India and the UK have restarted free trade talks, nearly a year after negotiations were paused ahead of general elections in both countries.
Jonathan Reynolds, the UK’s business and trade secretary, met his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal in Delhi on Monday and kicked off the two-day discussions.
The talks focused on “advancing” the negotiations and ensuring that the deal was “balanced, ambitious and mutually beneficial”, Goyal wrote on X.
The countries have held more than a dozen rounds of negotiations since 2022, but an agreement has remained out of reach.
Sticking points include high tariffs in India on Scotch whisky and relaxing fees and visa rules for Indian students and professionals going to the UK.
Talks are being held for the first time after the Labour Party came to power in the UK and Reynolds says securing a deal is a “top priority” for his government.
“Growth will be the guiding principle in our trade negotiations with India and I’m excited about the opportunities on offer in this vibrant market,” he said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
India is forecast to become the world’s third-largest economy in a few years.
The ministers held a joint press conference after the meeting, but neither side offered a deadline for talks to conclude. Deadlines set by former ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss had passed without an agreement being finalised.
For Delhi, the trade talks have assumed renewed significance on the back of US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal or tit-for-tat tariffs on imported goods from countries, including India.
The UK is also a high-priority trading partner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has an ambitious target to grow exports by $1 trillion by FY30.
The UK had announced in November last year – soon after Sir Keir Starmer met PM Modi at the G20 summit in Brazil – that talks would restart in the new year.
The two countries share a trade relationship worth £41bn ($52bn) currently, according to a UK government statement, and a trade deal could unlock new opportunities for both countries.
London has identified sectors that could benefit, which include advanced manufacturing, clean energy and professional and trade services. An agreement could also potentially unlock a valuable market for British cars, Scotch whisky and financial services worth billions of dollars.
India is seeking greater mobility for its working professionals and students to the UK, while pushing for faster visa processing times.
It may also seek concessions for its residents working temporarily in the UK on business visas, who are required to pay national insurance but are still ineligible for social benefits.
Speaking at the joint conference, Goyal said that immigration was not a part of the discussions.
“India has never ever discussed immigration in any free trade negotiations,” he said. Reynolds added that business mobility was a “separate issue” from immigration.
During Reynolds’ visit, he and Goyal will also visit the BT office in the northern Indian city of Gurugram.
UK Investment Minister Poppy Gustafsson is also in India and will be participating in events in India’s two big business hubs – Mumbai and Bengaluru.
After years of scepticism over free trade deals, India has been signing agreements or is in talks with several countries or blocs. Last year, it signed a $100bn free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association – a group of four European countries that are not members of the European Union – after almost 16 years of negotiations.
It is also set to resume negotiations with the European Union this year.
[BBC]
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