South Korean medical students to return to school, urge education reforms
FILE PHOTO: A doctor holds a slogan in a protest against a plan to admit more students to medical school, in front of the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea, February 22, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Soo-Hyeon/File Photo
SEOUL - South Korean medical students who walked out of school last year in protest at a government plan to increase medical school admissions said on Saturday that they would return to campus, calling on authorities to normalize academic schedules.
The Korean Medical Association, the main lobby group for doctors, in a statement urged the government to take steps to restore the academic calendar and improve training conditions.
'We will place our trust in the government and parliament and commit to returning to school to help normalize medical education and the healthcare system,' the KMA said in the statement, issued jointly with parliament's education committee and lobby groups representing medical students.
A specific timeline for the return was not provided.
Thousands of medical students walked out of school in early 2024 in opposition to a plan by the previous administration to add thousands of new spots at medical schools.
The trainee doctors had argued that the planned rise in admissions would lower the quality of medical education. They said that rather than just an increase in numbers of students, more reform was needed to attract doctors into essential care such as emergency or pediatrics.
The KMA statement called on the president and the government to form a task force to address long-term reforms in medical education and training and to ensure the participation of all stakeholders, including students. REUTERS
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Asia Air India crash report shows pilot confusion over engine switch movement
Singapore Peeling back the curtain: A backstage look at the SG60 NDP show segment
Singapore $3 cashback for hawker centre meals and shopping at heartland stores with DBS PayLah initiative
Singapore Body of 62-year-old man recovered from waters off East Coast Park
Singapore Wegovy, injectable drug used to treat obesity, now available via prescription in Singapore
Business NTT DC Reit's Singapore public offer 9.8 times oversubscribed
Multimedia Which floor is this? Chongqing's maze-like environment powers its rise as a megacity
Singapore Over 20 motorists caught offering illegal ride-hailing services at Changi Airport and Gardens by the Bay
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
18 hours ago
- Straits Times
Global childhood vaccination shows slight improvement but challenges remain
Find out what's new on ST website and app. A little girl reacts after receiving an oral vaccine during a vaccination drive for diphtheria, influenza, tetanus and pneumococcus in Lima, Peru November 7, 2020. REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda/File Photo A million more children completed the critical three-dose vaccination against diseases like diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to new data released by the World Health Organization. Despite the progress, drastic changes in funding, growing global conflicts, and rising vaccine misinformation threaten to further stall or even reverse progress which poses a threat. "We've hit this very stubborn glass ceiling, and breaking through that glass to protect more children against vaccine-preventable diseases is becoming more difficult," WHO's director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, Kate O'Brien, told reporters. In 2024, 89% of infants globally, about 115 million, received at least one dose of the DTP vaccine, and roughly 109 million completed all three doses of the staple shot that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, also known as whooping cough, according to the new national immunization coverage data released on Tuesday by the WHO and UNICEF. But, nearly 20 million infants missed at least one dose of DTP-containing vaccine, which includes 14.3 million "zero-dose" children who never received a single dose of any vaccine. This is 4 million more than the target for the year needed to stay on track with Immunization Agenda 2030 goals, the report added. The world is currently off track for the goal, which has been to halve the number of zero-dose children and achieve at least 90% global immunization coverage. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World Trump arms Ukraine and threatens sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil Multimedia From local to global: What made top news in Singapore over the last 180 years? Singapore Turning tragedy into advocacy: Woman finds new purpose after paralysis Singapore HSA intensifies crackdown on vapes; young suspected Kpod peddlers nabbed in Bishan, Yishun Opinion Sumiko at 61: When beauty fades, why do some accept it better than others? Singapore Man charged over distributing nearly 3 tonnes of vapes in one day in Bishan, Ubi Avenue 3 Singapore Man allegedly attacks woman with knife at Kallang Wave Mall, to be charged with attempted murder Singapore Ex-cop charged after he allegedly went on MHA portal, unlawfully shared info with man Data shows a quarter of the world's infants live in just 26 countries affected by fragility, conflict, or humanitarian crises, yet make up half of all unvaccinated children globally. In half of these countries the number of unvaccinated children has expanded rapidly from 3.6 million in 2019 to 5.4 million in 2024. "We're starting to see the emerging signs of slippage, and in other countries, stalling of vaccine coverage," said O'Brien. Despite the challenges, countries have been able to scale up vaccines for diseases such as HPV, meningitis, pneumococcal disease, polio, and rotavirus. In 2024, 31% of eligible adolescent girls globally received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine. While this is far from the 90% coverage target by 2030, it represents a substantial increase from the 17% coverage in 2019. Global coverage against measles also improved, but the overall coverage rate is far below the 95% needed in every community to prevent outbreaks. "The good news is that we have managed to reach more children with life-saving vaccines. But millions of children remain without protection against preventable diseases, and that should worry us all," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. REUTERS
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Japan's Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 91, hospitalised for new heart treatment
Find out what's new on ST website and app. The 91-year-old former Emperor will take the treatment to alleviate burdens on his heart. TOKYO – Japan's Emperor Emeritus Akihito was admitted to the University of Tokyo Hospital on the afternoon of July 14 to begin a new oral treatment for his heart. The 91-year-old former Emperor will take the treatment to alleviate burdens on his heart, on top of his ongoing medication treatment. Doses of the new treatment will be decided after he undergoes an electrocardiogram. In July 2022, the Emperor Emeritus was diagnosed with heart failure caused by a tricuspid valve insufficiency . Heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle does not pump blood as well as it should and can be treated. It differs from a heart attack where blood flow to the heart is suddenly blocked. He was admitted to the University of Tokyo Hospital in May for a heart examination and was diagnosed with asymptomatic myocardial ischemia. According to his aides, the Emperor Emeritus has carried out low-strain exercises and walks to maintain his health since the May hospitalisation. He also began taking medication to improve coronary artery blood flow. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore HSA intensifies crackdown on vapes; young suspected Kpod peddlers nabbed in Bishan, Yishun Singapore Man charged over distributing nearly 3 tonnes of vapes in one day in Bishan, Ubi Avenue 3 Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore High Court dismisses appeal of drink driver who killed one after treating Tampines road like racetrack Singapore 18 years' jail for woman who hacked adoptive father to death after tussle over Sengkang flat Singapore Jail, caning for man who had 285 child porn videos, including those that show infants Singapore Three power firms get co-funding to study carbon capture, storage to help Singapore decarbonise As these efforts did not lead to improvements, a team of doctors concluded that the additional oral treatment was necessary. It is yet to be determined how long the Emperor Emeritus will stay at the hospital. He may be discharged relatively swiftly once the dosage is decided based on his heart and full-body conditions. Emperor Emeritus Akihito became emperor in 1989 after the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito. He abdicated in May 2019 aged 85, nearly three years after he first expressed fears that advancing age might make it difficult for him to perform his duties. THE JAPAN NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
Italy's abortion taboos challenged by new law in Sicily
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: People demonstrate outside the Ministry of Health to demand the right to free, safe and free abortion as Non Una di Meno (Not One Less) movement and feminist collectives take part in a protest to mark the International Safe Abortion Day, in Rome, Italy September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo CATANIA, Italy - Monia, a Sicilian woman in her early forties, was overjoyed when she discovered in October 2022 she was expecting her first child. Her doctor, however, recommended a genetic test due to her age, and the result was one no parent wants to receive. The foetus had a genetic syndrome. Monia, who declined to give her surname, asked her gynaecologist what she could do. "Nothing. You don't want to terminate, do you?" the doctor asked her, she said. He was a conscientious objector, Monia said, one of hundreds on the southern Italian island. More than 80% of gynaecologists in Sicily refuse to perform abortions for moral or religious reasons, according to the latest health ministry data, which dates to 2022, even though the procedure has been a legal right for women in Italy since 1978. To address that situation, in late May Sicily's regional council - run by a centre-right coalition - passed a law in a secret ballot requiring all public hospitals to create dedicated abortion wards and to hire staff willing to provide the service. Under the national rules, abortion is permitted within the first 90 days of a pregnancy, or later if there are risks to the mother's health or foetal abnormalities. The latter circumstance applied to Monia, who went to the Sant'Antonio Abate hospital in the city of Trapani, in western Sicily, to terminate her pregnancy. "All the gynaecologists were objectors," she said. "An obstetrician gave me a bed with only a mattress cover and said they would administer a pill every three hours until I went into labour." She was told she would receive no further assistance. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Same person, but different S'porean Chinese names? How have such naming practices evolved? Singapore Jail for woman who opened bank accounts that received over $640m including scam proceeds Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Her story is far from unique in southern Italy, where cultural traditions are more conservative than in the Catholic country's richer north and centre. At first, Monia's pills were ineffective, but after five days and a change of treatment she finally miscarried, attended to by a doctor and a midwife. Hospital staff referred to her as "Article 6," she said, after the provision in the law that allows abortions beyond 90 days. In response to a request for comment, the Sant'Antonio Abate hospital said it was sorry for Monia's "difficult experience". However, the hospital said it was unable to verify the facts because both the hospital manager and the head of the gynaecology department at that time had left. The hospital said it now has three non-objecting doctors and was able to provide abortion services. Abortions are only available in around half of Sicily's hospitals, health ministry data shows, a figure much lower than in central and northern Italy, where rates are around 70%. Like most of his colleagues, Fabio Guardala, a 60-year-old doctor, refuses to perform abortions. He operates at the Cannizzaro hospital in the Sicilian city of Catania, on the east coast of the island. "A doctor's job is to heal," said Guardala, who is also deputy head of a healthcare unit at his local Catholic church. "Abortion is not treatment but killing. Nobody can force a doctor to kill." Silvia Vaccari, president of the Italian federation of midwives, FNOPO, said health outcomes can be grim in areas where legal abortions are hard to access. "The absence of facilities sometimes leads people to turn to non-professionals, putting them at risk of death, or to continue with pregnancies and give birth to babies who are abandoned in places where they may never be found alive," she said. CATHOLIC INFLUENCE Most other European Union countries allow health workers to refuse to perform abortions on ethical grounds, according to a 2022 study published in the Acta Biomedica journal. But the right is generally exercised far less commonly than in southern Italy. One exception is deeply Catholic Poland, where abortion is only legal in cases of rape or incest or when a woman's health or life is at risk. The Acta study said many Polish women have been forced to travel abroad to terminate their pregnancies. Abortion has always been contentious in Italy, a Catholic country that hosts the Vatican. Right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni passed legislation last year to try to deter women from terminating pregnancies. Pro-life groups have been allowed into abortion advice clinics, in a move Meloni's party said was aimed at giving women an opportunity for reflection before making a final decision. Nationally, the number of abortions dropped to 65,000 in 2022, according to the latest health ministry data, against 110,000 in 2011. More than 60% of gynaecologists are conscientious objectors. On the island of Sardinia, the region's ruling, left-leaning 5-Star Movement last month presented a law proposal similar to the one adopted in Sicily, suggesting that other southern regions may soon follow its example. Dario Safina, a centre-left Democratic Party lawmaker in Sicily and the promoter of the new law, said many Sicilian women seeking an abortion feel forced to resort to the private sector. "Access to abortion is not a problem for those who can afford it, because they can go to a private clinic. But healthcare based on wealth is the end of democracy," he said. Some doctors argue Sicily's high objection rates are not only due to ethics but also to staff shortages and poor working conditions that make it harder for gynaecologists to provide abortions on top of their regular duties. Data from the GIMBE Foundation, a health sector think-tank, shows Sicily had nine healthcare workers per 1,000 residents in 2022, compared with a national average of 11.6 and far below the northern and central Emilia Romagna and Tuscany regions with 15. "Hospitals always try to exploit doctors' work without paying them properly, so sometimes professionals are reluctant to perform abortions," said Salvatore Incandela, head of the Sicilian arm of AOGOI, Italy's gynaecologists' association. Italian anti-abortion group Pro-Life Together rejects this, saying non-objectors in Sicily were only required to perform 1.5 abortions a week on average in 2022 - still above a national average of 0.9. LEGAL CHALLENGES? Six Sicilian hospital managers and health professionals contacted by Reuters said the new legislation could strengthen the service, but it was still important to ensure doctors could opt out as allowed under 1978 national law that sanctioned the right to abortion. Under the law, health workers are exempted from abortion procedures if they declare an ethical or religious objection, so long as the woman's life is not in immediate danger. Gaetano Sirna, the director general of Catania's Policlinico-San Marco hospital, one of the city's largest, said even with just six non-objecting gynaecologists out of a total of 39, he could still ensure abortions for those who needed them. "We have no problems guaranteeing the availability (of doctors) ... gynaecologists are free to declare themselves as objectors; we do not discriminate," he told Reuters. Abortion is not the only case in which conscientious objection is permitted in Italy. It used to be grounds for avoiding compulsory military service, which was abolished in the early 2000s, and an opt-out for scientists from conducting animal experiments was introduced in the early 1990s. Giorgia Landolfo, a pro-abortion activist in Catania, called the new law in Sicily a "landmark," but said she feared it would be hard to enforce. Some anti-abortion groups say it will be challenged in court on the ground that job postings reserved for non-objectors discriminate against the others. "Many measures in the past aimed at hiring non-objectors have been challenged and ultimately came to nothing," said Vito Trojano, the head of SIGO, the Italian Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society. Some Sicilian politicians who strongly oppose the new rules believe the region should instead bolster its healthcare and support facilities for pregnant women, who often feel abandoned and see no alternative to abortion. "Life is life from the moment of conception," said Margherita La Rocca, a Sicilian lawmaker from the centre-right Forza Italia party. "The foetus cannot just be considered a clump of cells when it's convenient." REUTERS
