Prime Minister Han Duck-soo says the government will not tolerate personal attacks launched by trainee doctors taking part in collective action against doctors who remain in or have returned to their workplaces. The collective action was launched in protest of the government’s plans to increase the medical school admissions quota.

Han made the remark on Friday while chairing a government response meeting on the doctors’ collective action as he ordered the health ministry and the National Police Agency to get to the bottom of such cases and take appropriate action. 

Han said such trainee doctors are engaging in unimaginable acts, including blocking fellow doctors from going back to work or launching personal attacks against those who have returned to their posts.

The prime minister said there have been cases in which the doctors who have returned to work have had their names and the medical schools they graduated from posted online, and cases in which such doctors are being bullied or threatened in online chatrooms. 

Han said such actions against fellow doctors enrage and disappoint the public.