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With tens of thousands of doctors nationwide poised to shut down their offices from today to protest what they call the government's flawed medical reform program, the public has begun venting its anger over the pending doctors' strike.

In the last few days, many large and general hospitals across the country have refused to accept new patients and postponed major surgeries as doctors prepared to withhold their services beginning today.

Some hospitals have even forced patients to go home earlier than planned, causing widespread inconvenience and sowing fear of a looming medical service crisis.

As a result, most hospitals in Seoul were scenes of confusion yesterday as patients rushed to get medical attention before the strike begins. Patients had to wait even longer than usual to see doctors and some were simply turned away.

Some hospital switchboards were nearly paralyzed as disgruntled citizens made phone calls to complain.

State-run hospitals such as the National Medical Center, which are scheduled to remain open during the strike period, reported yesterday that they had difficulty coping with more than double the usual number of patients.

Patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension also overran pharmacies in a rush to purchase medicines in large quantities.

One pharmacy owner in Seoul said individual customers were typically buying over 100,000 won worth of drugs.

Just a day ahead of the planned general strike, hospital walls were plastered with announcements and statements recommending that patients check out before Tuesday.

One statement posted at Asan Medical Center in eastern Seoul read, "Please don't get sick and don't speed while driving. Even if you get into a car accident or come down with a fever, there is no doctor to treat you."

Visitors to the hospital were furious at the messages.

"I was just dumfounded at the posters," fumed a woman who visited the hospital yesterday morning. "How dare they do this? They are simply making a mockery of us (hospital patients)."

A 45-year-old man, who identified himself only as Kim, visited Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul yesterday for a blood test after hearing from a neighborhood doctor that his condition made it urgent. He was told by doctors that the soonest he could be examined was Aug. 30.

"I will never understand how doctors could hold the public health hostage to their greed," he said.

Meanwhile, the Korean Medical Association, a leading doctors' group, held a news conference yesterday in Seoul and officially declared that about 18,000 of its member clinics and hospitals across the country would close down from today.

The KMA said the strike would go on until President Kim Dae-jung promises to launch an overall review of the medical reform program.

The group argued that if the government's medical program separating the roles of doctors and pharmacists is enforced next month, it will seriously undermine doctors' professional rights and in turn, public health.

The doctors demanded the government take steps to prevent pharmacists from writing their own drug prescriptions, expand the list of prescription drugs and drastically increase doctors' fees.