Doctors cause health care havoc

Doctors cause health care havoc

SEOUL (Reuters): Up to 35,000 doctors in South Korea, upset
about a law that will hit their pocketbooks, began an indefinite
strike on Tuesday, throwing the nation's health care system into
havoc.

The doctors will strike until the government steps in to
remedy the situation, a spokesman for the Korean Doctors
Association (KMA) said.

But South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said the government
would not negotiate "at the cost of people's lives". On Tuesday,
hospitals were only treating patients in emergency rooms --
before sending them home.

Some 250 medical school teachers were mobilized for emergency
room duty at Seoul National University Hospital, its spokesman
Ahn Jong-man said.