South Korea denies hospital emergency rooms collapsing as army doctors deployed

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's health ministry said on Monday 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.

A strike by young doctors has increased strain on the medical system, but Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said that while some hospitals had shortened the hours of emergency room (ER) operations and were working with fewer doctors reports that some major hospitals had suspended ER operations were false.

"The overall emergency medical capacity is such that there are some difficulties but it's not a situation where we have to worry about a collapse as some people are warning," Park told a briefing.

The government plans to initially send 15 military doctors to emergency rooms that had been particularly badly affected and assign 235 military doctors and community doctors who will be rotated in to troubled hospitals from Sept. 9, he said.

Earlier on Monday, the national association of medical school professors said in a statement many emergency rooms were not providing normal services and a collapse of the healthcare system had already started.

Thousands of trainee doctors, including interns and resident doctors, walked off the job in February to protest against a plan to lift medical student numbers by 2,000 a year to meet what authorities project will be a severe shortage of doctors.

Hospitals which had relied on trainee doctors across multiple medical disciplines have had to turn away patients at emergency rooms, citing a shortage of staff, while existing doctors have experienced heavier workloads, the government said.

There are particular concerns about the impact of a three-day autumn holiday starting Sept. 16, which could put more pressure on ER operations. The government said it is readying 4,000 local clinics and smaller hospitals that would open in turn during the holidays.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies)