Yoon: Health care reform not subject for compromise

Feb 28, 2024, 09:05 am

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President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a meeting on cooperation between the central and local governments at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Feb. 27, 2024./ Source: Yonhap News

AsiaToday reporters Hong Sun-mi & Lee Joon-young

Some trainee doctors who have left their workplaces are reportedly returning as the government has told them they have until the end of February to return to work or risk being punished. Setting Thursday deadline for trainee doctors, the government has completed reviewing legal punishment for those who fail to return to work.

“It is difficult to aggregate accurate statistics because it is not easy to confirm the number of trainee doctors returning to work,” Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said on Tuesday. “In some hospitals, quite a lot of doctors are returning.” As of Tuesday, 8,939 trainee doctors, or 72.7 percent of the total, have walked off the job.

The government plans to carry out judicial procedures, such as suspension of licenses for a minimum of three months, and related investigations and prosecutions for doctors who do not return to work by February. “We have completed legal review for judicial processing under the current medical law system,” Park said.

Meanwhile, President Yoon Suk-yeol made it clear that he would not step down from collective action of the medical community, saying, “Health care reform cannot and should not be a subject for negotiation or compromise.”

“Staging collective action by taking the people’s health and lives hostage and threatening the people’s lives and safety is difficult to justify under any pretext,” Yoon said during a meeting on cooperation between the central and local governments. “Even if we raise the medical school quota now, the number of doctors will only start increasing 10 years later. Until when and how do you want us to postpone this?”

“Increasing the medical school quota by 2,000 is a minimum necessary measure needed to fulfill that constitutional duty of the state,” he said. “Based on the current situation alone, about 5,000 more doctors should be added to secure national average doctors in vulnerable areas to ensure fair access to medical services,” he added.

“The government is pushing health care reform with the utmost urgency as this is the last chance to save the people and local regions,” Yoon said. “When the people are sick, if they are unable to receive timely and proper treatment, the state would not be fulfilling its constitutional duty,” he said.

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