Members of the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA) hit the streets on Friday, criticizing the government's plans to increase medical school admission quotas.
KIRA is an organization made up of interns and residents at hospitals, who go through the training process to become specialists in a specific treatment area at a training hospital after obtaining a doctor's license.
They are adamantly opposed to the Moon Jae-in administration’s decision to turn out 4,000 more doctors over a decade, by training 400 physicians annually from 2022. The representatives of interns and residents said expanding medical school quotas and establishing a state-run medical school would worsen the quality of healthcare.
Korea Biomedical Review captured some of the scenes during the strike. The KIRA strike will go on for 24 hours from 7:00 a.m. Friday.