Gov't vows to complete medical reforms following court victory

The government stressed on Friday that it will “successfully complete medical reforms” by “respecting the judiciary’s wise and fair judgment," a day after an appellate court ruled in its favor.

Doctors walk inside a general hospital in downtown Seoul on Thursday. [NEWS1]

The government stressed on Friday that it will “successfully complete medical reforms” by “respecting the judiciary’s wise and fair judgment," a day after an appellate court ruled in its favor.

Yi Han-kyung, vice minister for disaster and safety management at the Interior Ministry, said the ruling has “empowered the government’s medical reform” initiative during a meeting at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters.

On Thursday, the Seoul High Court rejected an injunction calling to suspend admissions expansion in medical schools, which was filed by medical professors, junior doctors, students studying medicine and high schoolers aspiring to enter medical schools.

The minister also vowed to "end" the protracted standoff between doctors and the government.

Yi said the government will “lay out detailed plans to enact such reform measures to establish improved health care infrastructure by upholding the people's call.”

Yi said the expansion of medical recruitment, which is set to happen for the first time in 27 years, is a “starting point for saving the crippling essential medical services in the countryside” and a means of “reducing polarized health care access between urban and rural areas.”

He promised that the ministry will support doctors who studied in medical schools outside of the greater Seoul area, aiming to encourage them “to specialize in essential medical fields” such as emergency medicine and “to serve in regions where they were educated and trained.”

The minister also urged junior doctors to return to hospitals since their walkout “has continued for over three months,” citing various social calls, including those from patients’ groups. Yi promised to “enhance the quality of training” that junior doctors undergo and to “reduce excessive work hours.”

The Health Ministry on Friday said that approximately 20 junior doctors had returned to their training hospitals within a week as of Thursday.

Since February, over 10,000 junior doctors have walked out from their hospitals to protest the government's quota hike plan.

Yi said that the government will put public health as the “foremost priority” and utilize “all viable resources at the pan-governmental level,” preparing for further aggravation of the current impasse.

On the same day, several doctors’ groups — the Korean Medical Association (KMA), the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences, the Medical Professors Association of Korea and a nationwide professorial emergency committee of medical professors – issued a joint statement in response to Thursday’s ruling that sided with the government. In the statement, the doctors criticized the government’s “closed-door decision-making process” and insufficient grounds backing the figure 2,000, the number of seats to be added in the upcoming medical school admissions. They said that doctors were excluded from the conversation and their inputs were neglected. The doctors said the recent court decision, which legitimized the government’s push for medical recruitment expansion, would “discourage” active doctors who are currently attending their medical duties and aspiring doctors who wish to specialize in essential medical fields. They wrote that it will eventually “make doctors leave” the hospitals. They added that the judiciary’s decision would “jeopardize” public health and “inflict damage on people” as a consequence. The doctors also called for people’s support, saying that health services should “never be a tool for politics" and should "solely serve people."

According to a Yonhap News Agency's report on Friday, Lim Hyun-taek, president of the KMA, said he is suspicious about the judge who ruled Thursday, saying he assumes that there might have been a compromise or deal between the judge and the presidential office, particularly about a justice position at the Supreme Court.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]