[NEWS IN FOCUS] Yoon, PPP agonize over veto for Nursing Act

Neighborhood hospitals have been closing earlier than usual with doctors on partial strike and 20,000 nursing assistants on leave to protest nursing legislation pushed through the National Assembly led by the Democratic Party (DP).

Doctors and other non-nurse medical professions protest near the National Assembly in Yeouido last Wednesday against the Nursing Act, which was passed lawmakers with overwhelming support from the Democratic Party last month. [YONHAP]

Neighborhood hospitals have been closing earlier than usual since last week with doctors on partial strike and 20,000 nursing assistants on leave nationwide to protest nursing legislation pushed through the National Assembly led by the Democratic Party (DP) late last month.

While a crisis caused by a lack of medical services has yet to develop, the clock is ticking as doctor advocacy groups, as well as nursing assistants and other medical professions, are planning a full on strike on May 17 if President Yoon Suk Yeol does not veto the bill.

However, the People Power Party (PPP) is unsure whether to ask the president to exercise his veto, fearing a backfire in next year’s general election from politically powerful nurses.

The controversial Nursing Act was rushed through the National Assembly on April 27, led by the DP, which holds a majority with 170 seats.

With PPP legislators walking out to protest the DP once again flexing its legislative muscles by ignoring parliamentary negotiation and mediation processes, the bill was passed with the support of 179 out of 181 lawmakers present.

The newly legislated Nursing Act defines the roles and responsibilities of nurses, something absent in the existing Medical Service Act.

While the Medical Service Act simply defines nurses as a profession that provides care to patients by assisting doctors, the Nursing Act stipulates that all citizens are entitled to nursing care at medical institutions and in community care systems.

Doctors claim that new legislation allows nurses the right to perform medical services without the guidance of a physician, including the right to open their own clinics.

Doctors argue that if nurses administer medical procedures such as injections without proper supervision, major medical accidents could occur.

Moreover, proper medical services might become unavailable if nurses leave major hospitals for clinics located in more personally convenient areas.

“The initial purpose of the Nursing Act was to improve the treatment of nurses,” said Park Myung-ha, who heads the Korean Medical Association’s committee against the nursing legislation. “However, it was changed into a tool [to allow nurses to] monopolize community care businesses.”

Other non-nurse medical assistants claim that the legislation will strip away their jobs as nurses who open their own medical services such as nursing homes will hire only their own.

Korean Licensed Practical Nurses Association official Choi Kyung-sook criticized the DP for pushing ahead with nursing legislation that would strip away the jobs of other medical assistants who are more vulnerable than nurses

“If the Nursing Act is enacted, nurse assistants, paramedics, clinical pathologists and radiographers will face serious threats to their jobs,” Choi argued.

Nurses claim the Nursing Act benefits not only nurses, who are burned out from orders outside their job description, but allows patients to be safely cared for, especially in remote areas that lack medical centers with doctors.

The Korean Nurses Association argues that with the population aging rapidly, the role of nurses must change, with more dedication to community care. This includes health management through visiting elderly people in need of care.

Korea’s elderly population is edging close to 10 million.

Nurses say that the health system has to focus on community health management once patients are discharged from hospitals.

This in turn will help reduce medical costs.

“Opponents of the law, including the Korean Medical Association, are just creating fear by spreading false information,” said Kim Young-kyung, president of the Korean Nurses Association. “Opponents should immediately end actions to intimidate people, including talk of strikes, which use the lives of the public as collateral.”

She also asked the government to penalize doctors who refuse to treat patients in violation of the law as it harms the public’s health.

The PPP is considering asking the president to veto the legislation.

Yoon has until May 19 to veto the bill, which the government received Thursday.

Under the law, the president has 15 days to decide whether to veto a bill.

Considering that cabinet meetings are held on Tuesdays, Yoon will likely make a decision during the May 16 gathering.

The biggest concern for the president and his party is that the nurses’ union is much larger than those for doctors or nursing assistants.

A veto could backfire and cost the party in next year’s general election.

“There are concerns especially regarding the possibility that nurses, who are more organized, could campaign against our party’s candidate [in next year’s election] in protest of the president’s veto,” said a lawmaker who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

The lawmaker said the power of the nurses could have a major impact on the election in Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi and Incheon, where the competition between the PPP and the DP is particularly intense and races could be determined by just a handful of votes.

“For our party’s candidate, considering the large number of nurses in each constituency, they could pose a major risk,” the lawmaker said.

According to the Health Ministry, there were nearly 440,000 registered nurse as of 2020, with 120,000 students training to become nurses.

On the day the legislation was passed, PPP lawmakers Choi Youn-suk, a former nurse, and Kim Ye-ji, who co-sponsored the bill, voted in favor of the law, even as their party colleagues walked out of the vote.

Other PPP lawmakers said they wanted to vote in support of the bill, too.

“As the Korean Nurses Association could raise the issue, I wanted to leave a record that I was in support of the bill,” said a PPP lawmaker who talked to the JoongAng Ilbo under the condition of anonymity. “But the party’s leadership was strongly against it.”

“The Nursing Act is clearly a battle between professions,” said another PPP lawmaker. “It was a situation that could have been solved if the party and the government mediated.”

This is the second bill that the two rival parties — the DP and PPP — have clashed over.

The first was a bill that requires the government to purchase all surplus rice produced. The reform bill was passed by the National Assembly with the overwhelming support of DP lawmakers in March.

However, Yoon vetoed the bill, his first veto since taking office a year ago. The government and PPP argued that the law would only increase the burden on taxpayers and harm the competitiveness for farmers, as well as be unfair to other grain producers.

Some people speculate that the DP has been pushing bills such as the rice law and Nursing Act for political purposes, knowing full well they could be vetoed by the president.

“Yesterday [April 27] was a stage for the DP’s legislative runaway,” said PPP floor leader Yun Jae-ok during a party meeting on April 28. “It was an act of solidarity between the DP, which is trying to cover up for its incumbent and former leaders’ legal troubles, and the Justice Party, which is trying to push through the yellow envelope bill.”

The so-called “yellow envelope bill” is a revision to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act that would restrict the filing of damages against workers who go on strike.

The DP faces not only numerous indictments and investigations against its current chief, Lee Jae-myung, most notably related to a controversial development scheme, but also allegations of bribery against former party chief Song Young-gil in connection to the 2021 convention.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]