SEOUL - South Korea's medical association warned on Friday that a spike in COVID-19 cases and an ongoing strike by trainee doctors could cripple hospital emergency rooms next month at a time when many doctors will also be off due to a public holiday.

The government has, however, disputed the risk of ER closures cited by the Korean Medical Association (KMA) and said it was providing additional support where needed.

Thousands of trainee doctors, including interns and resident doctors, walked off the job in February to protest against a plan to lift medical student numbers by 2,000 a year to meet what authorities project will be a severe shortage of doctors.

Hospitals which had relied on trainee doctors across multiple medical disciplines have had to turn away patients at emergency rooms, citing a shortage of staff, while existing doctors have experienced heavier workloads, the government said.

The KMA, which represents practicing doctors, said more ER physicians at university hospitals have been resigning due to overwork and fear of facing malpractice lawsuits exacerbated by fatigue.

"In September, as the wave of COVID-19 cases peaks, there will be a surge of patients and there's also the Chuseok holiday when doctors in essential disciplines will be taking time off, so emergency rooms are likely to go into a serial shutdown," KMA spokesman Chae Dong-young told a briefing.

Chuseok is the country's annual holiday celebrated over three days in the autumn.

The Health Ministry said there may be some hospital emergency rooms that have needed support from military or community doctors assigned by authorities but denied that ERs were headed for closure.

South Korea has seen a resurgence of COVID-19 cases this month but the health ministry has said more than 95% of patients who have visited ERs are cases that could be treated at clinics.

As part of a medical reform plan, the government has proposed giving incentives to doctors to practice in essential disciplines and in regions outside Seoul and other large cities.

It has also proposed increasing the cost of using ER services to patients for non-acute emergency conditions in a bid to ease the load in this area.

  - Reuters