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.