Interns, residents to return to work Tuesday

The four-month-long doctors¡¯ strike is expected to end early this week as interns and residents will return to work Nov. 28 and medical university students will come back to class after a vote Nov. 27.

The emergency countermeasures committee of interns and residents decided to resume their medical services in a meeting of representatives of hospitals throughout the nation at Youth Town on Mt. Songni over the weekend.

Ninety percent of them will return to their jobs Nov. 28, while the remaining 10 percent will be back on duty after the Pharmaceutical Law is revised early next month.

Earlier, the emergency countermeasures committee of national medical university students reversed its earlier plan to push ahead with struggles, braving repeating one year of classes, in a meeting of representatives and decided to hold a vote on whether to return to class Nov. 27.

Some students insisted on continuing the collective action, but many agreed on returning to class. In connection with the students¡¯ move, the presidents of medical universities had meetings with student representatives Sunday and persuaded them to return to class as soon as possible.

The university presidents also decided to recommend that the government hold the state-run medical examination.

Meanwhile, the hawkish committee for the struggle to regain medical rights under the wing of the Korea Medical Association is still opposing the termination of the struggle. It decided to file a lawsuit for the confirmation of nullification of the result of a vote at the central committee on Saturday and is asking for a court injunction to suspend the business of the association president.

Song Sang-Keun songmoon@donga.com