The fallout from the doctor strike in South Korea earlier this year stemming from the government wanting to increase more medical school students to ease the doctor shortage continues to impact what was once a highly anticipated K-drama. Resident Playbook, the spin-off of Hospital Playlist, was supposed to air on tvN after Queen of Tears in May 2024 but was pulled from the lineup after the doctor strike happened and the public turned against the doctors. It’s been a few months now but there is no sign of the drama getting an airing date and may end up airing in 2025 which would really hurt the momentum, especially for female lead Go Yoon Jung who was supposed to be going from award winning hit Disney+ superhero family drama Moving to this next big project. The industry is still waiting to see how this plays out and it’s definitely also put a damper on ANY medical dramas with none being produced at this time.
Insanity.
That is so wild. Who knew doctors could get that much hate. Imagine if they cancelled or postponed medical dramas in the states too. Just seems weird. But doctors were never truly portrayed completely positive in dramas that it makes you wonder. You know the antagonists in medical dramas make your eyes go wide in wonder surely this is fiction and entertainment but who knows 🤷🏻♀️
For clarity when the public turned against doctors, did they boycott hospitals and medical treatments? Did pregnant women give birth at home and people who needed medical attention just opt to die instead? I’m not saying I agree with the doctors but they need to chill, it’s just a drama.
Patients didn’t boycott the doctors it’s yeh doctors that boycotted treating patients. Many patients have had to push back their surgeries and women had to find different hospitals for deliveries because doctors refused to treat them. That’s basically what’s causing the ire against them it seems. Not just doctors many professors have also boycott and some hospitals have been suspended it seems. Not fully aware of the situation but it’s quite messy right now with doctors strike.
It’s not unusual nor the first time for doctors to go on strike. German doctors did the same thing a while ago but on different reasons – demanding higher pay.
The most incredibly skillful, and hard working doctors but who have never whined about anything are those who practice in Taiwan. That’s why healthcare in Taiwan is so good and prestigious, like its semiconductor sector. LOL
BTW, what’s wrong to increase quota of med school admission? I can only see benefits for the public and the government, not the other way around. Controlling the supply of healthcare access is unethical.
The residents working hours and pay for certain specialities were not addressed.
They just wanted to increase the number of undergrads. The lecturers said they don’t have the staff to ensure the training. And as I understand its not the main medical schools that had the biggest increase.
Professors took 1 day off because they were covering the striking residents.
The issues are not that simple. By the way the working hours and expectations for Korean residents are nuts.
They are overworked. That’s why the field needs more trained professionals to be on call. Certainly there may be other critical issues to be addressed too. But protesting against increasing med school quota? I just don’t have sympathy for the cause.
the problem is: who will teach the resident and the intern? who will assured that the quality is maintained?
More or less: does the resident paid handsomely? because in my country, resident are the one paying the university to get educated (and not given single cent from the hospital), need more elaborated though.
More in that: does the hospital paid the attending doctor enough for teaching, researching, give health care?
In my country, doctors rarely boycotting. There is one instance when they did that: when the law isn’t protecting their colleguae. At that time, the emergency, the inpatient service and the scheduled surgery still ongoing, but out patient clinics are closed.
It’s basically about the agreement between themselves
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Knowing how hard these medical profession worked w/ pay issues among other issues, I understand them. It is unlike the US. They boycott to help up coming medical profession and themselves. If they don’t do this, they will continue to be step on. They have helped the people for so long, it’s time for the people to help the people that treats them and make it to a compromising state so that their doctors/RN ect.. continues to help treat patients at their most healthy state of mind too.
This will be a learning curve for all. The people will understand.
I don’t know much about the situation in South Korea but in France it’s catastrophic !The Public hospital lacks doctors, nurses,…they can’t treat people as they want, ER have to refuse people because of the lack of place ….We used to have one of the best public hospital of the world ( system you don’t have to pay because every month a percentage is deduct from the salary . A solidarity system . But now less students want to become doctors because of many factors . And the pandemic didn’t help either as medical staff was there for us and didn’t get anything in return !
Canada is also lacking health professionals… every discipline is suffering. People do not get paid enough. Druggies everywhere with alcohol and cannabis addiction… Our younger generation do not want to work hard because parents spoil them and the kids do not lack money. I can see this trend in all major cities. In term of dramas… China is known to ban dramas after completion, lots of completed dramas being shelved… I do not understand why Koreans cannot do the same… just hope the artists got paid.
The US has similar access issues in healthcare industry, thanks to lack of trained medical personnel, specifically in specialists and in rural areas. Americans living in highly populated metropolis or well-off suburbs may not be aware of the dire situation. But my profession has access to numerous studies of different expertise in the related fields that show lack of medical access is a great concern to many countries, including the US.
As someone familiar with the healthcare pricing (hospital charges and doctor fees etc.) as well as insurance costs, I know pretty well why American doctors are in the top 1% wealthiest. Like my profession, medical boards certifying doctors have control of doctor quota and set the service pricing as well. That’s the major reason why there are only a limited number of med school students and also fewer certified doctors than needed. That’s the way to make sure doctors are always highly demanded and get high pay. Same supply-demand curve applies to my profession too.
Given that there are access issues to medical services in the US, and obviously exorbitant and rising healthcare expenses in the US compared with other advanced economies in the world, Taiwan specifically, which doesn’t necessarily provide better quality healthcare than other countries, e.g., Taiwan, I strongly support any policy to increase quota of admission to med schools to pump up the supply of qualified doctors.
Even as a foreigner not familiar with SK’s healthcare industry, I don’t see anything wrong with increasing number of med doctors in the country. It’s a separate issue for the existing medical personnel to be underpaid and overworked. But increasing number of doctors is a right direction to go. The rest is to work out the details to well execute the policy. The cause for SK doctors to go on strike appears to be unjustified for me, or at least for wrong reasons.
A couple of weeks ago, tvN already announced this won’t be released until 2025. Sad but considering a lot of projects completed in 2021-22 still haven’t aired, it makes sense for tvN to try and buy rights for those instead of taking unnecessary risks right now. Ratings is still king after all. I believe Kim So Hyun’s pending drama is taking over from Midnight Romance (which was the replacement of Resident Playbook).
Nope. The Auditors, Shin Ha Kyun’s next drama got moved from Mon-Tues to Sat-Sun, and is replacing Midnight Romance. Then it’s Love Next Door (Jung So Min & Jung Hae In) then Jeong Nyeon (Kim Tae Ri).
The KSH drama is taking over the Mon-Tue slot from Player 2 which itself was moved from the weekend slot to the weekday slot. TVN was forced to make many last minute changes due to the strike.
That’s sad for everyone who worked on this drama. I hope it can air sooner rather than later. I saw they just finished filming last week.
I can’t imagine people turning against doctors for striking that they can’t even air fictional dramas. Medical (and detective dramas) are a staple of dramas in most countries